So We Can Stay Alive
by slincoln
Summary: While Kara Danvers is in Gotham looking to distract herself from the aftermath of the Daxamite Invasion Barry Allen shows up with a problem that needs her help to solve. Punching bad guys is an acceptable way of dealing with grief, right?
1. Prologue

So We Can Stay Alive

by: Sam Lincoln

Disclaimer: All the characters contained in this story are the proper of DC Comics, and Warner Brothers. No infringement is intended.

Summary: While Kara Danvers is in Gotham looking to distract herself from the aftermath of the Daxamite Invasion Barry Allen shows up with a problem that needs her help to solve. Punching bad guys is an acceptable way of dealing with grief, right?

Spoilers: This story takes place in during the current hiatus for all of the CW:DC shows, though the only finale that plays a role in the story is Supergirl's.

Prologue

* * *

Barbara Gordon and Kara Danvers sat on top of an office building that overlooked the Gotham skyline. They were both dressed in their costumes and sat with their legs dangling over the side of the building. The pair were eating large, foiled-wrapped burritos and had large paper cups of soda to wash them down.

"Babs, this is so good!" Kara said between bites.

"I told you it was," Barbara said. She had unzipped her jacket, but still wore her Batgirl helmet.

"You did, but I'll be honest, when you said you could get a better burrito in Gotham than National City I didn't believe you because hello, we make amazing burritos in National City and how could an East Coast city compete with us?" Kara took another bite from her burrito. "But I was wrong, I was oh so very wrong."

Barbara laughed. "I'm glad you approve of our burrito making skills."

"Approve? I think I'm going to have to steal the chef who makes these or at the very least make daily pilgrimages to Gotham to get my fix."

Barbara sat down her burrito and wiped a mote of dust off of her hands. "So Kara, how are things? We haven't talked since the Daxamite invasion and what happened to Mon-El."

Kara lowered her burrito. "I'm fine. I'm not going to lie and say what happened didn't suck, because it did. Or that I don't miss Mon-El, because I do. But Mon-El sacrificed himself to save the people of this planet, and I can't honor his sacrifice by moping and feeling sorry for myself." Kara's eyes narrowed. "Have you been talking to my sister?"

Barbara took pull from her soda before answering. "Your sister isn't exactly my biggest fan. Why would we be talking?"

"Because she doesn't think I've dealt with my grief properly." Kara picked at a piece of meat in her burrito before she popped it into her mouth.

"Where does that bitch get off being concerned about your mental well-being?" Kara glared at Barbara in response. "To answer your question, no. Alex hasn't talked to me. This is me asking you all on your own."

"I know how to process grief," Kara said. "This isn't the first time I've lost someone close to me after all."

Barbara held up a hand. "No, you're right, you have, and I didn't mean to suggest otherwise. But Kara, I've seen the news, I know how busy you've kept yourself. Don't you think you deserve a little time to yourself?"

"This is me taking time for myself. Why do you think I'm here on this roof with you, and not stopping that burgler breaking into an empty apartment three blocks from here?" Kara replied.

Barbara reached into her pocket and tapped out a quick message on her phone to the police about the robbery attempt. "Because you know how much he hates it when you or your cousin interferes with 'his' city," Barbara said.

"I've got to admit, I don't get that," Kara said. "Kal and I would love to lend a hand. We could help make a difference."

"His city, his problems," Barbara said. She took a pull from her soda. "And I get it, sort of. You have your own problems. If National City is being invaded by aliens you can't be expected to also help stop the Mad Hatter or the Clock King when they try to rob a bank."

Kara looked down at her hands. "But we're stronger when we work together, I firmly believe that."

"I know you do, and it's a lovely sentiment, but some people work better on their own, and that bounced right off of you didn't it?"

A look of determination crossed Kara's face. "I'm not giving up on him Babs, he'll come around to my way of thinking sooner or later."

"And I'm stuck between the unstoppable force and the immovable object, great," Barbara said. "But stop ducking my question. When are you going to take time for you? It's not healthy to keep everything bottled up."

"Helping people is how I grieve," Kara said. "Don't look at me like that, it's true."

"There's more to you than helping people Kara," Barbara said. "That might sound selfish, but it's true."

"But there's nothing I do that's more important than that," Kara said.

"If all you do is help people as Supergirl where does that leave Kara Danvers?"

"Kara Danvers is just an alias for Kara Zor-El, last daughter of a dead planet and defender of this one."

Barbara rested a hand on Kara's shoulder. "You do realize you're more than that don't you?"

Kara shrugged off Barbara's hand. "Can I just eat my burrito in peace? I thought you of all people would understand the importance of the work."

"Oh I understand fine," Barbara said. "I also understand what happens if you let the cape consume you. You become like, well, him." She pointed at the Batsignal that hung illuminated in the night sky. "But if all you want to do is ignore your problems and eat burritos I can do that too, because so help me I'm your friend and I have plenty of experience in dealing with self-destructive friends."

"I don't deserve a friend like you Babs," Kara said.

"Yes you do," Barbara replied. "Because you're Supergirl and you embody the best of us."

Kara's reply was cut off by a strange distortion in the air behind them. Barbara leapt to her feet and drew a batarang from her belt. Kara reached up and rested a hand on Barbara's arm. "It's okay, you don't have to worry, I know what this is."

"And?"

"It's a portal between dimensions."

"That doesn't instill much calm in me," Barbara said.

"It should. The only people I know who can do this are my friends." Kara was cut off by the arrival of two figures. One a man dressed in a red suit and mask, while the other wore a leather jacket and futuristic glasses. "Barry, Cisco! What are you doing here?" Kara scrambled to her feet and ran over to the two men.

"Kara, hey," Barry said as he gave Kara a hug.

Kara then hugged Cisco. "What are you doing here? How did you find me?"

"Our first stop was the DEO," Barry said. "It looks much nicer than I remember it being."

"We moved since the last time you visited," Kara said. "Now why are you here Barry?"

"You aren't going to introduce us to your friend first?" Barry asked.

"Oh right. Barry, Cisco, this is my friend Barrrtgirl."

"Big Simpson's fan?" Cisco asked. "They have the Simpson's on this Earth right?" He held his hand out to Barbara.

"Don't have a cow man, but the name's Batgirl," Barbara said as she shook Cisco's hand.

"Oh that makes a lot more sense," Barry said. "What with the big bat symbol on your chest, not that I was looking at your chest. Have I mentioned I'm engaged?"

"Barry is the Flash, the fastest man alive," Kara said.

"That would explain the lightning bolt," Barbara said.

"And Cisco is like Winn, only he also has superpowers."

"I can create portals between dimensions, no big deal," Cisco said.

"Now that we have the introductions out of the way. Why are you here?" Kara asked.

"Before we get to that why are you in Gotham?" Barry inhaled deeply. "And why does it smell the same as the Gotham on our Earth?"

Kara held up her burrito. "Burritos, I'm here for burritos."

"Aww, I want a burrito," Barry said.

"The corner of Adams and O'Neal," Kara said.

"Kara, I'm not sure your friend has time to…" Before Barbara could finish her sentence Barry vanished in a gust of wind and lightning.

He returned a moment later with a burrito in hand. "Wow Kara, you weren't kidding, this is amazing."

"So that's how it's gonna be, everyone gets a burrito except for me?" Cisco asked.

"Come on Cisco, you know I wouldn't leave you hanging like that." Barry produced another burrito and handed it to Cisco.

"Come to Papi," Cisco said to the burrito before he took a bite. "Sweet merciful heaven, I am definitely coming back to this Earth." He pointed at the burrito then flashed a thumbs up.

"Now that everyone has a burrito would you mind explaining what you're doing on my Earth?" Barbara asked. She placed her hands on her hips and glared at Barry and Cisco.

"Oh right. We, er, need Kara's help with something," Barry said. "I sort of figured that would be obvious, what with us crossing dimensions to come here and all."

"Are the Dominators back?" Kara asked.

"No, nothing that dramatic," Barry said. "Just some super strong bad guys in need of punching."

"You didn't even need to ask. Of course I'll help with bad guy punching. That is my speciality after all." Kara looked over at Barbara. "Can Barbara come along too?"

Cisco crossed his arms. "I don't know, does she have any powers beyond a kicking rad costume?"

"She can hold her own against Oliver in a fist fight, and Felicity in a computer fight."

"That's, that's a very compelling combination," Barry said. "Okay sure, even if she's half as good as you say she is she can come along, if she wants too of course."

Barbara looked between Barry and Kara. "I didn't plan on traveling to a different dimension when I woke up this morning, but what the hell you only live once."

"Great, the more the merrier," Barry said.

"So how do we get there?" Barbara asked. She zipped up her jacket.

"Cisco, light it up," Barry said.

Cisco lowered his high-tech glasses over his eyes then raised an arm. Ripples in the air radiated out from his hands and formed a shimmering portal. "One portal to Earth-1, as requested."

"Okay everyone, hold on tight," Barry said. He then winced. "Maybe not that tight Kara."

"Ooops, sorry," Kara said.

"Here we go, next stop Earth-1" The group vanished through the portal in a blur of golden lightning.

 _To be Continued_

* * *

 _Author's Notes:_ Okay, a little explanation might be in order. I wanted to get this prologue for the piece I'm currently working on up before the next season of Supergirl starts to stake my claim on where Kara's headspace is at before the show does. Plus it's Barbara Gordon meets Earth-1, which should be fun. The remainder of So We Can Stay Alive will be coming along whenever I finish the rest of the story. The first draft is maybe three thousand words from being done? So sometime around Christmas probably, given the speed with which I work. Also, 's cataloging system doesn't support indicating it, but this is definitely an "all hands on deck" Earth-1 crossover so expect to see plenty of Arrow characters. Now back to _Synthetica_ edits.

-sam, 2017-10-08


	2. Every Broken Thing Can't Be Fixed

So We Can Stay Alive

by: Sam Lincoln

Disclaimer: All the characters contained in this story are the proper of DC Comics, and Warner Brothers. No infringement is intended.

Summary: While Kara Danvers is in Gotham looking to distract herself from the aftermath of the Daxamite Invasion Barry Allen shows up with a problem that needs her help to solve. Punching bad guys is an acceptable way of dealing with grief, right?

Spoilers: This story takes place during the hiatus before the 2017-2018 seasons for all of the CW:DC shows, though the only finale that plays a role in the story is Supergirl's.

Chapter 1: Every Broken Thing Can't Be Fixed

* * *

The group came to a stop in the breach room in the heart of STAR Labs. Standing in front of the portal was Iris, Wally, Caitlin, Oliver and Diggle, none of whom were wearing their superhero costumes. After the lightning around Barry and the other dissipated Oliver walked up to the group of travelers. "Kara, it's good to see you again." He turned his attention to Barbara. "Hello and you are?"

Barbara looked around the room. She sighed then removed her helmet. "I'm Kara's friend Barbara Gordon, but you can also call me Batgirl."

"Anyone who's a friend of Kara's is sure to be an asset to us," Oliver said. "Oliver Queen, nice to meet you Barbara."

"Oliver is the Green Arrow," Kara said.

"You're the one who trained with the League of Assassins," Barbara said. "Kara's told me a lot about you, and I refused to believe most of it, because who believes in alternate dimensions?"

"It is hard to swallow," Oliver said.

"So what are we up against?" Kara asked Oliver.

"We're dealing with a new terrorist organization that's dedicated themselves to removing what they call the 'metahuman threat.' Obviously we aren't going to let them," Oliver said.

"Especially since a good number of people in this room are metahumans," Cisco said.

"What do you know about them?" Barbara asked.

"They're a splinter group from a government black ops agency called Argus," Diggle said. "Argus owns one of the largest stockpiles of high tech weapons in the world, and they made off with a few choice bits."

Oliver started to pace around the breach room. "Including the formula to a serum that can give ordinary people tremendous superhuman abilities."

"Or kill them," Diggle said.

"Or kill them," Oliver said. "It's called Mirakuru and I am extremely annoyed that Argus was researching it in the first place."

"Hey man, Lyla didn't even know Argus had it," Diggle said. "Waller kept that project beyond need to know."

"I'm blaming Waller John, not Lyla," Oliver said.

"So super strong terrorists, I can see why you called me," Kara said. "Point me at them and I'll care of the problem for you." Oliver took a step towards Kara and opened his mouth to speak then closed it. "You were about to say something like how this group plans for every contingency, but then you remembered I'm indestructible didn't you?"

Oliver shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket and rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. "No, I was remembering how easily the Dominators took over your mind last year."

Kara crossed her arms and glared at Oliver. "It's not like these terrorists are going to have any Dominators on their payroll."

"Argus collected a lot of leftover Dominator tech after their invasion failed. Who knows what Cadmus has done with it?"

Kara dropped her arms to her side and stiffened. "What, what name was that you just said?"

"Cadmus, that's what the group is calling itself," Cisco said.

"They've been making a lot of threatening videos on the Internet," Iris said.

Barry noticed the stricken look on Kara's face. "What's so bad about the name Cadmus?"

"We have a Cadmus on our Earth too," Barbara said. "And Kara has a history with them."

"On our Earth their goal is to rid the planet of aliens. You're telling me this Earth has super-powered Cadmus agents I can punch? Point me in their direction," Kara said. She clenched her hands into fists.

Barry stepped in front of Kara to keep her from leaving the room. "Okay Kara, love the enthusiasm, but you could you lower the murder in your voice by, oh let's say all of it?

"Before you fly off anywhere we need more information about the capabilities this version of Cadmus has," Oliver said. "Diggle and I are going to head back to Star City and check in with Argus to make sure they told us everything they know what about Cadmus stole from them."

"They did," Diggle said.

Oliver sighed and turned to face Diggle. "I know you trust Lyla John, I do too, but when she brought this to us she said they hadn't finished their audit."

"Uh guys, what about King Shark?" Barry asked.

"All the metas in Argus custody are still in Argus custody, don't worry," Oliver replied.

Barbara frowned. "What's a King Shark?"

"A half-man, half-shark hybrid," Cisco said.

"I've had a couple of run-ins with him," Barry said. He scratched the back of his head. "Never was a big fan of Jaws."

"Come on Barbara, we fought a crocodile man once. Is a shark man so hard to believe?" Kara asked. She nudged Barbara with her elbow.

"You fought a crocodile man?" Cisco asked. "That is so cool."

"Hey Kara," Wally said. "Could Mon-El come over from your Earth? He's plenty strong."

"Mon-El, he's…" Kara started to say.

Barbara stepped between Kara and Wally. "Mon-El sacrificed himself to stop an alien invasion."

"Oh Kara, I'm so sorry. I had no idea," Barry said. He took a step towards Kara who waved him off.

"It's okay, he's not dead, he just can't live on Earth anymore," Kara said.

"That's terrible," Caitlin said. She walked over to Kara and rested a hand on her arm. "If you need anything just let me know."

"Thanks, but I'm fine," Kara said. "It was terrible, but we a problem here and now that needs fixing and here I am to fix it."

"Why don't we go patrol Central City then while we wait for Ollie to gather more intelligence on what Cadmus wants?"

Kara glared at Barry. "I came here to help you."

"And you're helping me by patrolling. There have been attacks on people with meta abilities. If you want to punch a bad guy you'll have a real good chance to on patrol with me ," Barry said.

"Why are you being so cautious around me?" Kara asked as she backed away from Barry.

"Because you can punch me through a wall and you seem upset," Barry said.

"I'm not going to punch you through a wall Barry," Kara said.

"That's a relief."

"But also stop thinking you need to do anything to make me feel better. We've all dealt with loss in this room, me more than any of you can possibly imagine. Let's put a stop to your Cadmus and keep all the metahumans safe."

Oliver clapped his hands together. "That sounds like a plan. We'll be in touch as soon as we know something, or if we don't find anything."

Barbara put a hand on Kara's forearm. "If it's okay with you, and, uh, Oliver too I suppose, I think I want to go help him investigate the Argus connection. It feels like a better use of my time."

"That is a great idea Babs," Kara said. "You have to take her along with you Oliver. She's the best detective I know and she's easily as good a fighter as you or Sara Lance."

Oliver looked over at Diggle who shrugged. "If Kara thinks you'll be a help then you're welcome to come along." He paused. "You, uh, don't happen to have a change of clothes do you? I don't know about your Earth, but here people don't usually walk around wearing a cape."

In response Barbara unsnapped her cape and pulled off her gloves, stuffing them both into her helmet. "Will this work?" She partially unzipped her jacket, revealing the Gotham U t-shirt she wore underneath.

"A detachable cape. That is such a badass costume," Cisco said.

"I've always thought the pockets were a nice touch," Kara said to Cisco.

Oliver blinked. "Uh yeah, that works fine I suppose. We can get you a fresh set of clothes when we get to Star City, you know if you want something clean to change in to."

Barbara leaned over and gave Kara a hug. "Sorry for going to an alternate Earth with you, then immediately ditching you the moment we arrive."

Kara returned the hug. "Are you kidding? Helping out Oliver and his team is the perfect job for you. Plus I'm sure you'll feel right at home there."

Barbara cocked her head to one side. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just that Oliver's Star City reminds me a lot of your Gotham," Kara said.

"That's good?" Barbara said. "I shouldn't keep Oliver waiting, be safe Kara."

"You too Babs," Kara said. She waved to Barbara as she walked out of the Breach Room with Diggle and Oliver. "By the way, where are the Legends? I figured they'd be here too."

Barry rubbed the back of his head. "We called them, well tried to call them, all we got was an automated message from their ship's computer saying that time was broken and they were in Aruba, then the line went dead. So I don't think we can count on their help."

"I can't exactly say I'm heartbroken about not getting to spend more time around Heatwave," Kara said. "So this hasn't been going exactly how I thought it would. Let's go find something for me to punch. Cisco, what have you got?"

"I have no idea, but I'm sure we can find something," Cisco said. He walked out of the breach room with Caitlin, Kara and Wally in tow, leaving Barry and Iris behind.

"What's wrong Barry?" Iris asked. She closed the distance between them and laced their fingers together.

"I'm just worry about Kara you know. Losing Mon-El has to be hard on her."

"Like she said, she's dealt with loss before," Iris said. "She watched her entire planet die."

Barry rested his head against Iris's. "Yeah, but you saw her, do you think she's handling her loss well?"

Iris shook her head. "Of course not, she was nowhere near what I would call being okay. The question is what do we do with an unstoppable alien working her way through the stages of grief?"

Barry scratched the back of his head. "For now having her punch a bunch of criminals sounds good to me."

"And hope she doesn't punch anyone's head off?"

"That's why we're hunting Mirakuru-powered terrorists."

Iris kissed Barry on the lips. "Good luck."

Barry smiled. "Thanks, I'll be sure to duck if any errant punches come my way."

"Make sure that you do," Iris said. Barry kissed her again then vanished from the room in a gust of wind.

* * *

Oliver led Barbara into the Bunker. "And this is our base of operations."

"It's very nice as far as underground lairs go," Barbara said. She looked at the racks of weapons and other assorted pieces of crime fighting equipment. "Reminds me of home."

"Let's have you meet the rest of the team," Oliver said. "Everybody gather up," he said in a louder voice and the rest of Team Arrow congregated around Oliver, Barbara and Diggle.

"Hey boss, I thought you said you were going to get Blondie," Rene said. He crossed his arms in front of him and glared at Barbara.

"I did, this is Kara's friend from her Earth, Batgirl," Oliver said.

"Batgirl huh, so what, she has the powers of a bat?"

Barbara took a step towards Rene. "I have the power to put you on your ass."

"That's enough," Oliver said. "I've been told that Batgirl can hold her own against Sara Lance, and we all know how good Sara is in a fight."

"She could take you down that's for sure," Felicity said under her breath.

"What was that?" Oliver asked.

"Oh nothing, nothing," Felicity said. "You were introducing us to Batgirl." She toyed with a lock of her hair and smiled at Oliver.

Oliver frowned at Felicty but didn't push the matter. "Right, so Batgirl, I'd like you meet Felicity, Overwatch. Dinah is Black Canary. Curtis…"

"Mr. Terrific," Curtis said before Oliver could.

"And you've already met Rene."

Rene saluted Barbara with two of his fingers. "Call me Wild Dog, nice to meet you Red."

"That's certainly an appropriate codename," Barbara said.

"I try to keep things real," Rene said with a shrug. "So what do we call you if we think Batgirl sounds hokey?"

Barbara ground her teeth together then sighed. "Barbara works too."

"Okay, Supergirl is in National City with Team Flash in case Cadmus makes another appearance there. Myself, Dig, and Batgirl are going to visit Argus and see if they have anything else for us. Felicity, Curtis, keep looking for a way to track these Cadmus agents."

Curtis flashed Oliver a thumbs up. "You got it, we are on the case."

"And what do you want me and Dinah to do boss?" Rene asked.

"Clearly nothing because he didn't mention us," Dinah said.

"I want you to patrol the city like normal," Oliver said. "Make sure nothing else pops up while the rest of the team is busy."

Rene shrugged. "That's fine by me. Street level is my level."

"We all figured as much," Felicity said. "Okay let's go team!" She held her hand out for everyone to high fight, but after no one did she pulled it back to adjust an earring.

* * *

"I can't believe neither of you are wearing your costumes," Barbara said to Oliver and Diggle as they walked into Argus headquarters. Oliver and Diggle were still wearing their civilian cloths while Barbara had put her cape and helmet back on. "On my Earth when we talk to law enforcement we wear our costumes."

"Sorry to disappoint, but we do things a little differently here," Diggle said.

"For one thing Diggle is married to the director of Argus," Oliver said. They came to a stop in front of the lobby elevator.

They did not have to wait long before the elevator door opened to reveal Lyla. "Johnny," she said as she stepped out of the elevator and gave her husband a kiss. "Oliver, nice to see you, and you've made a new costumed friend."

"Do you remember Supergirl, Barry's friend from another dimension?" Oliver asked. "This is her friend, Batgirl." Oliver waved a hand in Barbara's direction.

"At this point I've heard crazier names," Lyla said. "I suppose you're here with Supergirl to help us with our Cadmus problem?"

Barbara nodded her head. "That's right, Supergirl was paying me a visit when Barry showed up, and she thought I could be of assistance, so here I am, assisting."

"I'll take any help we can get. This situation caught us all off guard, and for that to happen to Argus is saying something."

"Have you learned anything more about the breach?" Oliver asked.

"Come on down, we can talk about it in private." Lyla motioned for the trio to follow her onto the elevator and they rode it down into the depths of Argus headquarters. She then lead them into a secure conference room.

"Just tell us straight Lyla, how bad is it?" Diggle asked as soon as the door closed behind them.

"It's bad Johnny, they scrambled our databases on the way out so we have no idea what exactly it was they stole."

Oliver started to pace around the conference table. "But you're sure they have Mirakuru?"

"Positive, that and cutting edge cybernetic research."

"But if they were so good at covering their tracks how do you know that?" Barbara asked.

"Because that's what started this whole mess," Lyla said. "Cadmus was originally an off the books think-tank established by my predecessor. Nothing is completely off the books to the director of Argus, and I have less tolerance for cutting corners ethically. When I found out they existed I zeroed out their budget immediately."

"Let me guess, they didn't take the news well?" Diggle asked.

"That's putting it mildly, the head of Cadmus, Doctor Lovell, stormed into my office the next day screaming that I'd sold humanity down the river. I told her to get bent and the next thing I knew all hell broke loose. You have to believe me Ollie, if I'd known they'd managed to synthesize working Mirakuru I would've brought you into the loop a lot sooner."

"It's okay Lyla, we all thought Mirakuru was gone for good when we neutralized the sample in Slade Wilson's bloodstream. It figures the lure of super-soldiers was too strong for someone like Amanda Waller."

"So would you say she was the sort of person who wanted to stay in control of any given situation?" Barbara asked.

"Her schemes within schemes had schemes," Diggle said.

"Then there's no way she'd authorize the creation of an army of unstoppable murder men without also creating a killswitch is there?"

"She did, I have no doubts about that," Lyla said. "The problem is the information is in the data they scrambled. I have my best people on it, but so far they haven't managed to make much headway."

"Why don't you let Felicity and Curtis take a crack at it?" Oliver asked.

"Oliver, I'm not about to hand over top secret government data to a pair of civilians. Especially not Felicity Smoak, not after the stunt she pulled with Helix."

"She's also the best hacker on the planet and we all know it," Oliver said.

"Not all of us know that," Barbara said. "But then again I'm new in town. Not to mention supremely confident in my own programming skills."

"You think you're better than Felicity?" Diggle asked.

Barbara shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe, I don't know, I haven't seen her work."

"Felicity is going to be so mad when she hears about this," Diggle said.

"She'll get over it," Oliver said. "Because three heads are better than two."

"Copy that," Diggle said. "Lyla, you know us, and you know how quickly we need to get this information. Who do you honestly think will do a better job of unscrambling these databases?"

Lyla sighed. "Curtis and Felicity of course." She reached into the pocket of her jacket and withdrew a USB stick. "This drive has copies of the databases on here. So help me Johnny, if I see any of this data out on the dark web."

Diggle took the thumb drive from Lyla then passed it over to Barbara. "You won't, I promise." He leaned over and kissed his wife on the cheek.

"Lyla, thank-you, this is a huge help. As soon as we decrypt these files we'll share them with you."

"Great, the vigilante is going to deign to return the government's data to the government, that's wonderful."

"Don't worry, Felicity will get this figured out," Diggle said.

"Honestly Johnny, that only makes me more nervous." She turned and walked out of the conference room.

As the trio left Argus headquarters Barbara looked over at Oliver. "I know this isn't my place to ask."

"Then don't," Oliver said.

"You didn't even hear my question."

"You want to know what Felicity did to earn Lyla's distrust," Oliver said. "I'm not going to tell you because it is none of your business."

"One, it is so my business because I deserve to know who I'm working with, and two I don't need to ask because it's obvious your resident hacker went black hat recently. What I want to know is why."

Oliver chewed on the inside of his cheek as he thought about Barbara's question. "The answer is still no." He held up a hand to cut off the impending protest from Barbara. "Not because I don't think you should know, but because it's not my story to tell. Ask Felicity if you want to know the details, just know that she thought she was trying to do the right thing."

"Aren't we all," Barbara said.

Before Oliver could reply his cellphone rang. "Speedy this is not the best time. What?" Oliver pinched the bridge of his nose as he listened to the other end of the line. "Okay, okay Thea, I'll be right there." He hung up the phone and looked over at Barbara. "We have to make a slight detour. You might, uh, want to lose the cape and helmet."

* * *

"You're new," Thea said to Barbara as she walked up to the trio after they entered Olvier's office.

"Thea, this is Barbara. Barbara this is my sister, and chief of staff, Thea," Oliver said. "Where is the councilman?"

"In the conference room with Quentin," Thea said.

Oliver adjusted the cuffs on his leather jacket. "Okay, Diggle, Barbara, wait here, this shouldn't take too long. I just need to lock down his vote for a redevelopment project in the Glades." He walked out of the office and indoor the adjoining conference room. Through the plate glass door Barbara could see Oliver shake the hand of a middle-aged man dressed in a rumpled suit.

Thea stepped in front of Barbara and crossed her arms. "So Barbara, love the jacket. What's with the logo, and why are you hanging out with my brother, at night?" She tapped an index finger against her bicep.

"Barbara is helping us out with the latest crisis," Diggle said. "She's an," he paused to smile, "out of town consultant."

Thea glared at Diggle. "An out of town consultant you say? Okay fair enough." She sighed and unfolded her arms. "Do I want to know anymore than that?"

"Honestly no," Diggle said. "Not if you want to sleep tonight."

"Do you need my help?"

"I thought you had retired," Diggle said.

Thea shrugged. "I mean I have, but anything that has you spooked must be serious."

"Don't worry Thea, we've got all the firepower we need."

"You sure? I'm willing to bet nothing would make Ollie happier than having me put the suit back on."

"Oliver wants you to be happy, whether that means you're in the suit or not."

"If the world is about to end let me know. I'd rather go down fighting."

Diggle nodded his head. "Copy that."

The door to the conference room opened and Oliver and the councilman walked in with Quentin Lance trailing behind them. Oliver clapped the councilman on the back. "I'm glad to know we have your support on this important vote councilman."

"It's like you said Mayor Queen, this project is vital to the revitalization of the Glades," the councilman said. "I'm happy to do what I can. You'll be sure to follow through on your end of our bargain?"

"Of course, the Flash will be there for your daughter's birthday."

"It will be the real Flash right, not Kid Flash? Nothing against Kid Flash, but he's not the original you know?"

Oliver gave the councilman a tight smile. "Yes, it will be the Flash, you have my word."

The councilman pumped Oliver's hand. "You've made my daughter's year Mayor Queen."

"I'm glad I could help, and the people of the Glades thank-you." After another round of handshakes the councilman left the office.

"Since when does Barry do birthday parties?" Thea asked as soon as the door closed.

"He does now," Oliver said.

"Hey no judging from me, whatever it takes to get the sausage made." Thea leaned against Olvier's desk. "Dig says you're working on something bad. I'm sorry I had to pull you away from it."

"No, that's fine, we need the votes for the redevelopment. We might be dealing with Mirakuru super soldiers, but the world is still turning and I can't let the business of the city fall to the wayside."

"Mirakuru?" Quentin asked. "You mean like Slade Wilson?"

"Unfortunately yes, but don't worry, we have a plan to handle them."

Thea pushed herself away from the desk. "Them, you mean there's multiple people with Mirakuru running around?"

"We don't know exactly how many there are, but yes."

"This has to do with that group Cadmus that's been making all those weird viral videos about meta humans isn't it? I thought they were cranks."

"It does, but they're rouge Argus cranks so we have to take them seriously," Diggle said.

"How seriously?"

"Barry called his friend from National City seriously," Oliver said.

Thea let out a low whistle. "That is serious."

"I didn't understand any of that," Lance said.

"Believe me, you're better off not," Barbara said. "Though an old beat cop like yourself probably doesn't like that answer."

"How d'you know I was a cop?" Lance asked.

"Because you look like a cop," Barbara said. "My dad's been on the job for thirty years, I know what a cop looks like."

"Is he anyone I know?"

"No, you don't, and even if you did you don't."

Lance frowned. "Run that one by me again."

Oliver clapped Lance on the back. "It's a long story and I promise I will explain it, but right now…"

"Yeah I know right now you gotta save the day and that includes Red over there." He pointed at Barbara. "Just don't die Ollie, I'd make a terrible mayor."

"I think you'd make a terrific police commissioner," Barbara said.

"Oh no, my policing days are done. It's hard enough to be this guy's deputy."

"Police commissioner, that's not a bad idea." Oliver tapped Lance on the shoulder one last time before leading the team out of his office.

* * *

Back in the Bunker they found Curtis and Felicity pouring over their computers while Dinah and Rene watched on. Felicity looked in their direction when she heard the elevator open. "Oh my god, what took you guys so long?"

"That would be my fault," Thea said. "I needed Mayor Queen to do his day job for once."

"Thea, what are you doing here?"

"She's here to help," Oliver said. "Argus gave us the data Cadmus stole from them, but their copy was scrambled somehow. I told Lyla that the two of you were better than her people and could unscramble it before they can."

Felicity slumped down in her seat. "I bet Lyla was so happy to hear you say that."

"That's…it's not important right now and Lyla knows it. The lives of a lot of people rest on you and Curtis figuring out what's on this flash drive." Oliver held up the drive.

Barbara snatched the drive out of Oliver's hand. "We're three of the best hackers on this, or any other Earth, let's get to work." She plugged the thumb drive into the nearest terminal and started to type.

Oliver turned to face the others. "Let's, ah, give them some space."

"Wait a minute, you're a ninja and a hacker?" Felicity asked.

"Didn't I mention that when we first met?" Barbara asked without looking up from her work.

"Not that I recall," Felicity said. She waved as Barbara's hands flew across the keyboard. "And I certainly wouldn't have believe you without seeing it. How did you get to be so good?"

"I spent some time confined to a wheelchair so I got good at computers to compensate. By the time I finished my physical therapy and was back on my feet there wasn't a system I couldn't break into."

"Wow Felicity, the two of you have to much to talk about," Curtis said. "And I'll just be other there…working." He walked over to the other side of the workstation area when he saw the glare Felicity aimed at him.

"So paraplegic?" Barbara asked Felicity.

"How did you guess?"

"Other than Curtis all but saying it? The ramps were a dead giveaway."

"Oh right, we never took those out. Can we not talk about this, like not now, or ever?"

Barbara nodded her head. "Of course not, but you do have someone to talk to right? You might be out of the chair, but that still leaves scars."

"Yes, I have a therapist okay. Not that I can tell her every messed up thing in my life, but I have one."

"Good, that's good to hear. You can't bottle stuff up, you know?"

Felicity shook her head. "Just when I though my life can't get any more weird I'm getting mental health advice from a resident of another dimension who dressed like a bat."

"Imagine being the person who travelled from the other dimension."

"I'd rather not, I get queasy if Barry carries me even a short distance."

"That wasn't pleasant, but nowhere near as bad as getting flown across town by Kara, and this is coming from someone who spends her nights swinging off of rooftops."

"Oh god, I can't even imagine what that must be like," Felicity said.

"It's not pleasant, but when the choice is between that or going splat on the ground. Well I'm glad Kara was there," Oliver said as he walked past where Barbara and Felicity sat on his way to his gear.

"Boys, always trying to one up you. Don't you just hate that?" Felicity asked Barbara.

"I usually kick them in the face when they do," Barbara said. "It gets the message across."

"I should try that, only I'm not the kicky punchy sort."

"There's no reason you couldn't be one though," Barbara said.

Felicity laughed then looked down into her lap. "No, oh no, believe me that's not me. No, I'm perfectly happy to be guiding the action, not taking part in it."

Barbara nodded her head. "We all play our parts however we can, that's commendable."

"You're disappointed, don't say you aren't because you are, I can tell these things."

Barbara rested a hand on Felicity's arm. "I get punched, kicked and shot at on a nightly basis. If anything, I'd say you're the sane one."

Felicity smiled. "Gee thanks Barbara."

They were interrupted by Rene leaning over Barbara's monitor. "Hey Red, mind answering a question for me."

Barbara leaned back in her chair. "Sure, it's not like I'm doing anything important right now."

"Great." Rene clapped his hands together. "So what's your damage?"

Barbara crossed her arms and cocked her head to one side. "My damage?"

"Yeah, your damage. Why do you dress up like a bat every night and beat up criminals? We all got our damage, that's why where here. I was curious what yours is."

Curtis spun around in his chair. "I don't have any damage."

"Dude, you're so obsessed with being a crime fighter that your husband divorced your ass."

Curtis adjusted his glasses. "You don't have to be rude about it."

Barbara leaned forward in her seat. "Well Rene, it was Rene right? I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I don't fight crime because I'm damaged. I do it because it's the right thing to do. I'm not an orphan. I'm not fighting to correct a wrong. I'm not looking for revenge, nor am I the last daughter of my home world. It's just the right thing to do."

"I don't believe you," Rene said.

"I can't help you there Wild Dog, but I'm not lying. I can help people as Batgirl, so I do. It's as simple as that."

"I don't care what dimension you're from. Nothing is ever that simple."

Barbara smiled at Rene. "It is for me, and that's all you're going to get out of me on this topic."

"So there is damage." Rene smirked at Barbara.

"Only if you consider a drive to help people damage," Barbara said. "I also volunteer my time teaching coding to disadvantaged kids. Is that also a sign of damage?"

"Okay, I get it now," Rene said. He took step back and wagged his finger at Barbara. "You're one of those people."

"One of what people?"

"You think you're better than us. You swagger on in here and say you're a better fighter than Oliver and a better hacker than Felicity."

"I've never said that I was better than anyone," Barbara said.

"You sure been acting like it," Rene said.

"I see, so your superpower is being an asshole."

Barbara and Rene glared at each other until Oliver's voice broke in. "That's enough, Rene go help Diggle with the gear."

"But."

"Now." Rene scowled at Oliver, but did as he was told. Oliver, now dressed in his Green Arrow costume, walked back over to the computer area. "Do you have a moment?" He asked Barbara.

"I suppose," Barbara said. "This algorithm will take a while to run."

"Great, I'd like to have a chat in private."

Barbara looked around the room. "Okay, where?"

"You go on patrols on your Earth right?"

"Of course."

"Then go on patrol with me."

"But the databases…"

"You just said whatever it is you're doing will take a while. Curtis and Felicity know their stuff. Come on, you know you want to get a lay of the land."

Barbara bit her lip as she thought over Olvier's offer. "Okay fine, just give me one moment." She called up a map of Star City on her monitor and examined it briefly before standing up. "Let's go."

"What was that all about?" Felicity asked.

Barbara tapped the side of her head. "I've got a photographic memory and I wanted to make sure I know where all the streets are."

Oliver nodded his head. "That's smart, always staying prepared like that."

"That's how I was taught to fight crime." Barbara snapped on her cape and pulled on her helmet.

"You had a good teacher," Oliver said. Barbara followed Oliver to the elevator.

"He's pretty good at his job," Barbara said. "Annoyingly so at times." The elevator closed behind them.

* * *

Barbara and Oliver stood on rooftop that overlooked Star City. "I like coming up here," Oliver said. "You need to get out of the Bunker from time to time to get the feel for the city."

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" Barbara asked. "Or were you looking for an excuse to get me away from Wild Dog?"

Oliver switched the hand he was holding his bow with. "A little bit of both to be honest. Rene can be an acquired taste to be around but I do agree with him. You're trying to prove your worth to the team, I get it. You came here with Kara and compared to her we're all inadequate."

"So stop trying so hard?"

"Stop trying so hard. Though I do appreciate your help."

"Hey Green Arrow?" Felicity said over the radio. "A silent alarm just went off near your location. SCPD is a good ten minutes out at least."

Oliver looked over at Barbara. "Want to stop a robbery?"

Barbara unholstered her grapple gun. "Always."

Oliver toggled on his radio. "Overwatch, we're on it." He shot a zipline across the street, then swung down the line. Barbara fired her grapple gun and followed Oliver.

They both landed quietly on a building across the street from the combination office and warehouse being robbed. They crept to the edge of the roof and looked down into the alley separating the two buildings.

"Just one lookout," Oliver said. "Sloppy work by them. Overwatch, what else do you have for us?"

"I hacked into the building's security cameras," Felicity said. "There are seven robbers in total; the one outside then six more inside."

"I can take care of this on my own," Barbara said.

"What did I say about trying too hard?" Oliver asked.

"It's just seven robbers, I've taken out more solo. And I bet you have too." She toggled on her radio. "Overwatch, is there anything I should know about these robbers? Do they have anything out of the ordinary?"

Felicity typed on her keyboard. "Do you count lots of guns as being out of the ordinary?"

"Not particularly no," Barbara said.

"Then it's just a run of the mill armed robbery," Barbara said. She drew her grapple gun, fired it at the building across the street and let it pull her across the gap between the buildings.

"So are you having a good time with Batgirl?" Felicity asked Oliver.

Oliver watched as Barbara dropped onto the lookout, knocking him out with making a sound. Barbara cuffed the man and took his radio. "It's been very illuminating so far," he told Felicity.

Barbara slipped into the building, sticking to the shadows in the hallways. "Where are they?" She asked Felicity as she ducked into the building.

"Uh, fifth floor, why isn't Oliver in there with you?"

"Fifth floor, got it. Thanks Overwatch, I can take it from here." Barbara switched off her radio.

"She, she turned off her radio, who does that?" Felicity asked.

"I get the sense she does most of her work on her own Overwatch," Oliver said. "My advice is sit back and enjoy the show."

Barbara eased open the door to the fifth floor of the office building and found rows upon rows of cubicles. She crept along the outer wall of the floor until she saw a light on. Silhouetted against the light were two of the robbers slowly making their way through a maze of cubicles.

Barbara snuck up behind one of the two lookouts. She withdrew an injector filled with a fast-acting knockout agent from her utility belt and stabbed him in the neck. The drug staggered the lookout and he fell down. Barbara caught him, but in the process his submachine gun clattered to the ground. The noise drew the attention of the other lookout.

"Hey frank, was that you?" The lookout asked, swinging his flashlight in Barbara's direction.

Barbara stayed low and dragged Frank's unconscious body into one of the cubicles. She bound his hands and feet with zipties she kept in her utility belt.

"Frank, this isn't funny man. You know what the boss said about playing jokes on this job." The lookout turned down the row of cubicles Barbara was hiding in. When his flashlight fell on the dropped gun he ran over to it. He aimed his flashlight to his left only to see a figure rising up out of the darkness. Barbara punched the robber square in the jaw with as much force as she could The robber staged and fell unconscious into the cubicle behind him.

Back in the Bunker the team stood around Felicity's workstation watching the feed from the building's security system. "Okay I'll give it up, the girl's got skills."

"Of course she does, the joke's on you for not realizing it," Dinah said.

"That was the easy part," Diggle said. "She still has four more to take down."

Barbara approached the source of the light and saw that it was a work lamp next to a door that lead into the attached warehouse. Barbara doused the lamp and entered the warehouse. She fired her grapple gun and pulled herself up into the rafters of the warehouse where she could get a better look at the lay of the land. She crept along a steel girder until she saw two of the robbers walking between tall shelves stacked with crates. Barbara paused to listen in on their conversation.

"I'm telling you Bobby, something's not right. We haven't heard from Franky, Ritchie or Steve. They know the boss's plan, constant check-ins."

"Would you relax. Boss said this will be a cakewalk. By the time the police get here we'll be long gone."

"It ain't the police I'm worried about Bobby, it's the Green Arrow and that bunch."

"Oh settle down, you're always worried about those vigilantes," Bobby said.

"You should be too. The cops might arrest us, but they aren't going to shoot us with arrows." The pair then paused their patrol to examine a crossing in the rows of shipping crates.

Barbara wrapped her grapple line around the girder and hooked the gun to her belt. She lowered herself down and grabbed Bobby. She wrapped one arm under his shoulders and clamped a hand over his mouth. The grapple gun pulled them back up into the rafters.

"If you're quiet you don't get dropped," Barbara told Bobby as she took her hand off of his mouth. She bound him to the girder then dropped back down to the warehouse floor. She crept up behind Bobby's partner.

"What is taking them so long? We should be done by now, right Bobby, Bobby?" The robber realized he was alone and turned around to look for his partner.

"Boo," Barbara said. She swept his legs out from underneath him and then knocked him out with a quick punch to the head. She then walked towards the only light on in the warehouse.

She found the last two robbers in an office off the main floor of the warehouse. Barbara closed the distance between her and the office. She stayed low to avoid being detected and came to a stop just outside the door to eavesdrop on the robbers.

"Boss, this is going wrong," she heard one of the robbers say. "I can't get any of the rest of the crew on the radio."

"Easy there Eddie, we're almost into the safe. We get into the safe, we get the bonds and we're rich. If the rest of the crew gets caught then there's more for us."

Barbara could hear Eddie checking the magazine of the gun he was holding. Barbara pulled a batarang out of her utility belt. She edged closer to the door and peaked around the corner to see if either of the two robbers were keeping watch on the door. She instead found that they were both focused on a laptop connected to an electronically locked safe. Barbara took deep breath before she threw the batarang at the fluorescent lights built into the ceiling, causing the office to fall into darkness.

"What the hell?" Eddie asked. Before he could react further Barbara dropped him with a kick to the head. The boss decided that was enough was enough and ran past Barbara on his way out of the warehouse. Barbara sighed to herself then threw a batarang that unfurled into a bolo at the retreating robber. It wrapped around his legs and he bounced along the ground before finally coming to a stop against a shipping crate. Barbara walked up to the robber and bound his arms and legs to keep him from running off.

Barbara then togged on her radio back on. "That's seven robbers down."

"Good work Batgirl, now get out of there before the SCPD arrives on scene," Oliver said.

"Copy that Green Arrow, I'll be at your position in five." Barbara drew her grapple gun, but before she fired it she threw one final batarang at a wooden shipping container, embedding it in the container's side. "That one's for you Bruce," she said to herself. Barbara pulled herself back up to the warehouse's ceiling with the grapple gun and slipped out through an air vent as the door to the warehouse burst open and members of the SCPD poured inside.

Barbara joined Oliver on the roof of the building opposite the warehouse. "So how did I do?"

Oliver continued to watch the police below them. "You don't need me to answer that, you already know."

Barbara cocked her head to one side. "Perhaps, but I've got enough of an ego to enjoy hearing other people say it."

"In that case what do you want me to say? That you were good, better than good really, because you were."

"I passed the audition in other words?"

Oliver looked over at Barbara. "Is that all you think this was? Me leading you to a robbery I knew was about to happen to make sure you're as good as Kara says you are?"

Barbara shrugged her shoulders. "That's precisely what my mentor would do, so yes."

Oliver chuckled. "No offense, but your mentor sounds like a dick."

"He can be," Barbara said. "But then again I wager you are too when it comes to keeping your city safe."

"I admit, I might've had a notion that a gang was looking to knock over a score somewhere around here, but taking them on solo was all your idea not mine. Let me guess, that's also how your mentor operates."

"He's very driven about his crusade to save Gotham."

Oliver smiled. "I can relate to that."

"I suppose you could. You seem pretty driven yourself."

"My parents both died in front of me, and both times I was powerless to save them. If I can make my city a better place then their deaths won't have been in vain."

Barbara's eyes grew wide. "Okay yes, you would get along with Batman. Provided your combined macho posturing didn't result in one or the other of you getting killed first."

"So this mentor of yours, Batman, he was trained by the League of Assassins too? I can see bits of it in your fighting style."

Barbara rolled her eyes then sat down on the edge of the roof. "Yes, Batman was trained by Ra's and his daughter…"

"Nyssa?" Oliver asked.

"No, Talia."

"I know her too well, my Earth's version at any rate. This is all pretty strange to me."

"Me too. So there's really no Caped Crusader in Gotham? Your Gotham?"

"They call Bruce Wayne the Corporate Crusader for his work redeveloping Gotham, but that's about it. Nice guy, I met him once a long time ago. I don't think his vision of corporations as a force for positive change is going to work in the long run, but his heart's in the right place. Anyway we should head back to the Bunker and see if Curtis and Felicity have made any progress on those Cadmus files." Oliver frowned when he saw the faraway expression on Barbara's face. "Barbara, did you hear me?"

Barbara shook her head. "What? Yes, we should get back to work on the Cadmus files. Sorry, I was just thinking how funhouse mirror this all is, and if I should Google myself or not, if you even have Google."

"If you want my advice don't. Somethings your better off not knowing, like learning that in another dimension you're dead."

Barbara pushed herself to her feet. "You're probably right. Still it's only natural to be curious." Barbara drew her grapple gun and aimed it at the building across the street.

"Can't fault you for that." Oliver toggled on his radio. "Overwatch, we're on our way back." He loosed a grapple arrow at the same time Barbara fired her gun and they both ascended off of the rooftop.

* * *

When they exited the elevator to the bunker Felicity was the first person to great them. "Oh my god Babs, that was so amazing," she said as she hugged an astonished Barbara. "I mean okay I've seen plenty of people with moves like yours, but none of them can hack like you can. You're a double threat."

"Uh, thank-you?" Barbara said as she disentangled herself from Felicity.

"What Felicity is trying to say is that your approach to decrypting the files, well it wasn't precisely correct, but it pointed us in the right direction," Curtis said.

"We know what's in those files?" Oliver asked.

"We know roughly what Cadmus is planning," Felicity said.

"And?"

Felicity twisted her hands together. "And it's a good thing that Supergirl is here, and it might not be enough."

Oliver nodded. "Send copies to Cisco and Lyla. Dinahs, Barbara, you're coming with me to Central City." He paused. "Curtis too. Everyone else, I need you to stay here and keep an eye on Star City."

"Serioulys Ollie, I come out of retirement and you're benching me?" Thea asked.

Oliver walked over toe Thea and placed his hands on her arms. "Speedy, I'm not benching you. I need people here in Star City while I'm gone who I trust, and there's nobody in the world I trust more than you, Dig and Felicity."

"Plus, if Ollie brought you along Cisco wouldn't shut up about 'Ollie's Angels' or some other similar bad joke," Felicity said. "And nobody wants that."

Thea sighed. "Okay fine, I don't like it, but you have a point. I'll stay behind and see to it that your city will be here when you get back, and you will get back." Thea poked Oliver in the chest before hugging him.

Oliver returned the hug then took a step away from Thea and looked at the rest of Team Arrow. "Okay people, let's suit up and stop Cadmus."

- _To Be Continued_

- _Author's Notes:_ Fun fact, every time I wrote the section where Barbara thwarts the robbery I listened to the Elfman Batman theme. It fits very well. The first draft of the story is now finished, so I can now focus on the second, and third, draft. Expect the next chapter, hopefully before Christmas? That would be nice. Thanks for reading.

-sam, 2017-11-25


	3. All Those Fragile Things We Are

So We Can Stay Alive

by: Sam Lincoln

Disclaimer: All the characters contained in this story are the proper of DC Comics, and Warner Brothers. No infringement is intended.

Summary: While Kara Danvers is in Gotham looking to distract herself from the aftermath of the Daxamite Invasion Barry Allen shows up with a problem that needs her help to solve. Punching bad guys is an acceptable way of dealing with grief, right?

Spoilers: This story takes place during the hiatus before the 2017-2018 seasons for all of the CW:DC shows, though the only finale that plays a role in the story is Supergirl's.

Chapter 2: All Those Fragile Things We Are

* * *

Barry caught up to Kara as she walked through the halls of STAR Labs. "Hey there, wanna talk?"

Kara crossed her arms. "No, I want to go punch these terrorists threatening the metahuman population of your Earth."

Barry stepped in front of Kara. "And that's what I want to talk to you about. We need to come up with plan for how to deal with them when they make their move."

"Oh, I thought you wanted to talk about…" Kara's voice tailed off.

"You said you didn't want to talk about that so we won't. I asked you here to punch bad guys and by golly that's what we're going to do."

A smile started to creep across Kara's face. "Did you just say by golly?"

"I, that is, I can, maybe? I don't know. Half the time I don't even know what I'm saying, super speed remember?"

"You sound like someone in an Archie comic."

"Oh you're one to talk Ms. Grew-up-in-a-town-called-Midvale," Barry replied.

"At least I don't say by golly," Kara said.

"And aren't you so fancy for that," Barry said. "If you're done having your fun at my expense let's go talk to Cisco and Caitlin about finding bad guys to punch."

Kara dropped her hands to her sides. "Okay let's go talk to Cisco."

"He's been working on a tracking down Cadmus since their first video hit the net." Barry lead Kara into the Cortex where Caitlin, Cisco and Harry were working on various projects.

"Hey Barry, Kara, what's up?" Cisco asked.

"Nothing much, just curious if you made any progress finding bad guys for Kara to punch."

"I don't have any leads on Cadmus, but I bet we can find some criminals for you two to foil in the meantime. Let me go check the police scanner."

While Barry and Cisco conferred with each other Kara walked over to where Caitlin and Harry were working. "Hi there, it was HR right?" Kara asked Harry.

Caitlin and Harry shared a look before Harry cleared his throat. "I'm a Harrison Wells, but not HR, he was killed by Savitar."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, it's just you look exactly like him, except you aren't wearing that hat," Kara said. "And you look much grouchier."

Caitlin rested a hand on HR's arm. "Harry and HR are the same person, just from different Earths. He's here to help us out for a little while."

"Oh, that's, huh, okay, well it's nice to meet you Harry," Kara said.

"Likewise," Harry said as he shook Kara's hand. "And I hope this shows you that you aren't the only person here who's lost someone recently."

Kara pulled her hand away from Harry as if it had been burned. "What?"

"You're acting like you've got a monopoly on grief, and if you look around you'll see that's not true."

"I do not, I know that you know." Kara clenched her fists together.

"Harry, why don't we go, uh, somewhere else," Caitlin said. She grabbed Harry by the arm and dragged him out of the room.

"Sorry about Harry," Barry said. "He can be a little, uh, prickly at times."

"Prickly, you call that prickly?" Kara asked. She pointed off in the direction Harry had left. "I call that being an ass…"

Barry grabbed Kara by the arm. "Okay right you made your point and we don't have to hang around here. Why don't we go to the police station? Yeah, I could show you my lab. That's only fair since I saw where you work." He started to drag Kara out of the lab. "And maybe after that we could go to Jitters." He looked over at Cisco. "Call me the moment you have anything."

* * *

"And this is my lab," Barry said as he lead Kara through the door. "It's not all high tech like the DEO or STAR Labs, but it works for me. I used to share it with someone, but he transferred to another city not too long ago." He looked back at Kara. "I'm babbling aren't I?"

Kara nodded her head. "Yeah, just a little." She had changed out of her Supergirl costume into civilian clothes. "But I don't mind. It's comforting in a way."

"Comforting is good I guess," Barry said. He scratched the back of his head.

"Of course it's good." Kara tapped Barry on the arm. "Now I won't remember any of this, but what do all these machines do?" She peered at a lab bench filled with scientific equipment.

"Those are microscopes, and delicate ones, so no touch," Barry said.

"I know what a microscope is, and I wasn't planning on breaking your toys," Kara said.

They were interrupted by a knock on the open door and the arrival of Joe West. "Hey Ber, I was just wondering if you had the DNA results…hello, who are you?" Joe pointed at Kara.

"Oh right, Joe this is my friend Kara Danvers, from National City," Barry said.

"Kara from National City, you mean she's the alien?" Joe's voice dropped in volume as he spoke.

"Yes she's the alien from Earth-38, can we not make a big deal of it?"

Joe pulled the door to the lab shut. "You must be really worried about Cadmus."

Out of the corner of his eye Barry saw Kara stiffen at the mention of Cadmus. " We, ah, aren't mentioning Cadmus around Kara, she had a bad experience with them on her Earth."

Joe looked over at Kara. "Did she now? The same group?"

"Same name, different group," Kara said. "I'm afraid I can't help with figuring out their plans or anything like that."

Joe waved his hand. "No, being able to stop a train with your bare hands is help enough."

"Hopefully I'll be able to do something useful while I'm here."

"You're Supergirl, I'm sure you will. Look you two obviously have important stuff you're working on so I'll come back later for those DNA test results."

"Uh actually Joe, there is something you can do for us," Barry said.

Joe shrugged his shoulders. "Sure Ber, anything, what do you need?"

Barry glanced over at Kara again. "Well, uh, do you know if there's any crime for Kara to fight? It's just we don't know where Cadmus is right now, so until then Kara wanted to keep herself busy."

Joe chuckled. "I'll see what I can do, but I've got to be honest with you. Today's been quiet by Central City standards. There hasn't been anything that needs the Flash, let alone Supergirl."

"Okay well thanks anyway Joe. We'll be at Jitters if anything does crop up."

"You'll be the first to know if anything does happen," Joe said.

"That's true, we will," Kara said. She tapped on her right ear. "I have super hearing."

"Super hearing huh, that's a new one to me, and I thought I'd seen everything."

"You can't, but Kara can," Barry said. "She also has x-ray vision."

Joe took a step back from Barry and Kara. "For real? So you can see through my clothes?"

"And your skin, or even entirely through you," Kara said. "But don't worry, I have complete control over it, and I only use it when I have to, and have no other choice."

"Which doesn't include right now, or anytime we're in the same room," Joe said.

"Relax Joe, Kara isn't a peeping Tom." Barry looked over at Kara. "You're not right?"

"No, believe me, no," Kara said. "That's just way, way, way too embarrassing for everyone, trust me. I only use it to fight crime…and to see who's at the door."

Joe snapped his fingers together then pointed at Kara. "Now that I like. That is a handy skill to have."

"Joe's got a thing about door-to-door salesmen," Barry said to Kara.

"It's not a thing Barry. I work a hard job with long hours, and when a man who works long hours at a hard job gets home he don't want his precious rest time interrupted by someone at his door trying to sell him on the virtues of having a lawn care contractor. I'm a man, I can mow my own damn lawn."

"I seem to recall that you always made me mow the lawn," Barry said. He scratched his chin while Kara giggled.

"That was to help you build character, besides I was supervising."

"You were asleep on the porch with a beer," Barry said.

"The point Barry, is that I don't need to have some company come in and do my yard work for me."

"Consider your point made," Barry said. He gave Joe a hug. "Remember, call me the moment anything happens."

"Apparently I don't even need to do that," Joe said. "Be careful out there Ber."

"I always try to be."

"And you're not always successful, so this time try a little harder. My lawn's getting a little long after all."

* * *

"Joe seems like a real great guy," Kara said to Barry over coffee at Jitters.

"He is, I've been really lucky to have him in my life," Barry said. "It was rough when my mom was murdered, but Joe got me through it. He took me in, kept me out of foster care, never disparaged my dad in front of me despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary."

"Gave you years to perfect your in with Iris," Kara said. She waggled her eyebrows at Barry.

Barry raised his cup of coffee. "There was that too."

"Sometimes it's hard to see it, but we've both been so lucky," Kara said.

Barry frowned. "What do you mean?"

Kara placed her mug down on the table. "Think about it. We both have had not one, but two families that love us. That is such a special gift considering some people don't even get one."

Barry turned over what Kara said in his head before replying. "That is a good point, I never really thought of it that way."

"Now you have," Kara said. "So have you and Iris settled on a date yet?"

"For the wedding?" Kara nodded in reply. "No we've been taking things slow. After Savitar, and me being trapped in the Speed Force, we just want to enjoy the moment, you know?"

Kara bobbed her head up and down. "I do, believe me I do."

"Still, you're right, we should set a date. What do you think about May?"

"That's a way's off," Kara said.

"It'll give us plenty of time to plan and make reservations. Plus our guest list is going to need a lot of lead time."

Kara laughed. "That's the truth, I hope I'm invited."

"Of course you are. You, Alex, James, J'onn, and Winn, you're all invited."

"Are you really sure it's wise to have Cisco and Winn inhabit the same dimension?" Kara asked. "To me that seems like a recipe for trouble."

"That, okay yeah, that is probably a really bad idea. Do you think Winn would be offended if he didn't get an invitation?"

"It would break his heart you monster," Kara said.

"Then I guess we'll just have to risk it," Barry said. He fell silent and took a drink from his mug. "We should do this more often, this is nice."

"Fight an evil terrorist organization?" Kara asked.

"No, hang out," Barry replied. "Like when there isn't a rogue government agency out to kill me we should all just get together, maybe have a barbecue."

"That's a really good idea," Kara said. "I could introduce you to Kal, and you could visit the new DEO headquarters…"

"Already been there remember?" Barry said.

"That doesn't count, I didn't give you the tour," Kara said. "It's a lot nicer than that bunker in the desert we were staying at the first time you visited." Kara clapped her hands together. "Oh my god your honeymoon!"

"Kara, I'm sure your Earth is lovely, but why should Iris and I go there for our honeymoon?"

"No, not my Earth, but some Earth, you've got the whole multiverse at your disposal, get weird."

Barry leaned back in his chair. "That's, you know, that's not a bad idea. I'll talk to Iris about it. She might not want to, but who knows. It's more exotic than a Caribbean Island."

"Or maybe a Caribbean Island on a different Earth, did I just blow your mind?"

Barry chuckled, but before he could respond his cellphone rang. "Hey Cisco what's…"

A steely expression fell across Kara's face. "Tell Cisco we're on our way," she said to Barry.

"We're on our way Cisco," Barry said then hung up his phone. "On our way where?"

"To a fire, I can hear the sirens, some place called Mercury Labs."

Barry leapt out of his seat. "Mercury Labs? That's not good, come on." He and Kara ran out of Jitters at normal speed and into an alley behind the coffee shop. Kara pulled open her shirt to reveal the crest on her costume. "So, uh, do you keep your cape under there as well?"

"Not the time Barry," Kara said. She launched herself into the air, leaving her civilian clothes lying on the ground in her wake.

"Oh man, she must go through a fortune in clothes," Barry said to himself. He picked up Kara's clothing then ran after her.

* * *

Barry came to a stop outside the Mercury Labs building. From where he was standing he could see smoke and flames billowing out of the upper stories. "What happened?" He asked the closest fireman.

"We don't know, all of a sudden the building just went up."

"What's the situation?"

"The lower floors are evacuated, but everyone above the fire is trapped. It's too dangerous for us to fight because we have no idea what's burning."

Barry saw a streak of blue and red flash overhead then dive into the building. "Good news, because help has arrived," Barry said. "I'll go look for survivors and let her take care of the fire." He raced off, staggering the fireman.

"Her? Who's her?" The fireman asked no on in particular.

Kara landed int the middle of the raging inferno. She scanned the room with her x-ray vision looking for survivors of the blast. She saw a women trapped in a bathroom. Kara flew through the fire and knocked down the wall to the bathroom. She gathered the woman up in her arms and flew her out of the building.

Kara landed next to an ambulance. "A little help here," she called out and two EMTs came running over. "She needs oxygen, but otherwise is fine," Kara told the paramedics.

The sound of another explosion brought Kara's attention back to the building. She zoomed in on the fire with her x-ray vision and saw that it was threatening to spread to a room full of chemical barrels. "Everyone get back!" Kara yelled at the EMTs. "The building is about to blow." Kara pushed off the ground and surveyed the surrounding area looking for something to help her extinguish the fire. She saw a hazmat pumper truck sitting next the building. Kara flew over to the firetruck.

"Sorry boys, but I need to borrow this," Kara said to the firemen standing around the pumper truck. She lifted it over her head and flew the firetruck towards the fire. With a quick blast of her head vision she sheared open the tank containing hundreds of gallons of fire suppressant. The suppressant poured out of the fire engine and flooded the burning floor, quenching the flames. When she was satisfied that the fire was completely extinguished Kara returned the fire truck to where she got it from.

Kara looked around at the crowd of firefighters that gathered around her. "It's okay everyone. I put the fire out before anything, well worse, could happen." She turned her attention to the fire chief. "Sorry about your truck, it's a little beat up now."

The fire chief stared at Kara like she had grown not just a second head, but a third one as well. "Don't, uh, worry about it." He looked up at the smoking hole in the side of the building with fire suppressant leaking out of it. "We can, ah, fix it."

Barry pulled up to a stop next to Kara "I pulled out all of the survivors from the floors above the fire, and I can see you don't need my help putting the fire out."

"Be careful when you send your men up there," Kara told the fire chief. "There are still a few hot spots that might flare up if given the chance."

"Thanks for the assist, but we can take it from here," the chief said. He motioned of the other firefighters to follow him and they all dropped into the building.

"That's a fine how do you do," Kara said to Barry.

"You did kind of break their fire truck," Barry said. They both turned and looked ate the crumpled and battered fire engine.

A reporter came running up to Barry and Kara. "Flash, hey Flash. Who's your cute new friend?"

"Oh sure, this is my friend Super…"

"Woman," Kara said. She pushed Barry to the side and planted her hands on her hips. "I'm Superwoman."

"Simple and to the point, I like it. What's your story Superwoman?"

"I'm here to help people and that's all you need to know," Kara said. She pushed off from the ground and flew off into the distance.

"Yeah, she does that," Barry said to the reporter before he raced away from the scene.

* * *

Team Flash were all standing around Barry and Kara congratulating them for a job well done. Kara ducked her head and pulled the edges of her cape around her. "I'm just happy I was able to save some lives today."

"Hey Kara, what was up with calling yourself Superwoman?" Barry asked.

Kara's cheeks turned pink. "That's the name I was going to call myself before Ms. Grant decided she liked the name Supergirl more, and no I'm not bitter about it. But it a little infantilizing and I wanted to give Superwoman a try to see how I liked it."

"And what's the verdict?" Caitlin asked.

"Honestly, I think I prefer Supergirl. It's the same number of syllables as Kal's name, and Superwoman is a mouthful."

"Too bad, because I think you might be suck as Superwoman on this Earth," Iris said. "You're the top news story on every channel in the city."

"Explaining my disappearance is going to be fun," Kara said.

"I'll just put out a press release telling them the truth," Barry said. "You went back to your home planet."

"Huh, yeah, that would be the truth wouldn't it?" Kara shrugged her shoulders. "So that fire. That was weird right? I know accidents can happen, but I've put out plenty of fires, and that one was weird."

Cisco walked back around his desk and started to type on his computer. "I'm not an expert, but I believe you are correct."

"And I am an expert and I know you're correct," Barry said. "That fire was way too hot, and far too localized. It was definitely set on purpose."

Kara looked around at the rest of Team Flash. "Then how did it happen?"

Barry shrugged. "We'll have to wait for the arson investigators to finish their work before we know anything definitive."

"It might not take that long, check this out," Cisco said. "Mercury Labs has a state of the art security system. Lasers, IR, biometrics, you name it, they got it."

"So what Cisco," Caitlin said. "The fire would've ruined the cameras on that floor and maybe even the servers holding the footage."

"And what if I told you that part of that high tech system includes cloud storage?"

"And you can access it?" Iris asked.

"Is my name Cisco Ramon?"

"I don't know, let Barry rewrite the past a few more times and it might not be," Wally said.

"Hey come on, that's not fair," Barry said.

"Kid flash raises an excellent point," Cisco said. "However since Barry has yet to unmake me I remain Cisco Ramon, hacking god."

Iris clapped Cisco on the shoulder. "Yeah, but Felicity is better."

Cisco's shoulders sagged. "Of course Felicity is better, that goes without saying. She is the one true Goddess of Hacking."

"Out of all the hackers available to us in Central City at this moment you're the tops Cisco," Barry said. "Now what can you find out about the cause of the fire?"

"Let's see what we can see shall we?" Cisco said. He tapped on his keyboard for a moment. A black and white image appeared on the main screen. "This is the lab where the fire started." Cisco pushed play on the video and they watched the black and white video. At first nothing happened, but then the room vanished in a flash of white and the feed went to static.

"Was that a bomb?" Kara asked.

"Play it back Cisco," Barry said. "But slow it down."

"Right, of course." Cisco back the video up and they watched the explosion again, but this time they went frame by frame. "Son of a bitch, look at that." He zoomed in and they watched a cardboard box explode.

"Somebody wanted to blow up Mercury Labs, why?" Caitlin asked.

"Two reasons. Either somebody's really got it out for Mercury Labs, or they were trying to cause a distraction," Barry said.

"Job done there," Kara said.

Barry walked over to Cisco's desk. "For now let's assume distraction. Cisco were there any other robberies that took place around the same time as the fire?"

"Specifically ones that might've gotten Barry's attention," Kara said. She looked over at Wally. "For that matter, where were you?"

"There was an out of control car on the freeway. But I was able to stop it before anyone got hurt."

Kara frowned. "What about the driver?"

"Just a commuter who had her breaks give out, why?"

"I think what Ms. Danvers is trying to suggest is that it is an awfully big coincidence to have two events happen that require the talents of Mr. Allen and yourself Mr. West," Harry said. "I know if I was looking to steal something in Central City, and I'm not, but if I was I would make sure my crime flew underneath your radar by creating incidents that were more immediately pressing."

"It's Cadmus," Kara said. "This is exactly how they operate on my Earth. Distraction after distraction while they secure what they're really after."

"Isn't that a stretch?" Caitlin asked Kara. "They might share names, but there's no reason to think the Cadmus on our world is anything like the one on your Earth."

"I think Kara's right you guys," Barry said. "It makes sense, and fits the pattern we've seen today. Especially if Cisco has any luck finding that other robbery."

"Just a moment, got it!" Cisco pounded the enter key on his keyboard and took a step back from his computer. "There was an armed robbery at Kord Industries. They stole a whole mess of chemicals."

Barry walked around the desk and read off the monitor. "The robbers were heavily armed and seemed stronger than they should have been."

"Like they were on Mirakuru?" Caitlin asked.

"It's entirely possible," Barry said.

"That's them, that's Cadmus," Kara said. "What sort of chemicals did they steal?"

"Bad ones, I can think of a half dozen ways these could be used to hurt people," Cisco said.

"All the more reason to find them then," Kara said. "Do we have any leads?"

Barry shook his head. "No, but that's where my day job comes in. Come on Kara, let's go play forensic scientist. Cisco…"

Cisco held up his hands. "I know, keep looking for Cadmus, believe me, I am." He waved to Barry and Kara as they left the lab.

* * *

Barry walked into the cordoned off Kord Industries warehouse and saw Joe talking to a uniformed cop. "Joe, hey Joe," he called out.

"It's about time you got here Barry," Joe said as he walked over to Barry.

"Look, I need a favor, can you clear the scene? I want to have Kara give the room a once over and I'd rather not have to explain why I'm giving an extradimensional extraterrestrial access to our crime scene."

"You think it was them this Cadmus group, that did this?" Joe waved his hand holding his notebook around to indicate the crime scene.

Barry shrugged his shoulders. "Sooner or later they're going to move beyond posting scary videos on the Internet. Why not now?"

Joe scratched his chin. "Okay, I'll clear the scene, but Barry know this. You are making this case a whole hell of a lot more shaky by doing this. A judge might not look too kindly at any evidence gathered by an extrawhosiwhatsit."

"Extradimensional extraterrestrial," Barry said. "She's an alien from a different dimension."

"My life used to make sense, you know that right?" Joe said to Barry as he walked over to the sergeant supervising the scene. After a short conversation the rest of the police left the warehouse leaving Barry all by himself.

"You can come in now," Barry said to apparently thin air.

Kara flew in through an open window in the warehouse and landed next to Barry. "Okay I'm here to help. I've never really done anything like this, but I'm here to help."

"Your super vision, can be used to see things really small in addition to very far away right?"

"Yeah, it's microscopic as well as telescopic," Kara said. "Don't look so surprised Barry, I know what words mean."

"Okay, great So what I want you to do is search the floor and look for anything that seems out of place: a drop of blood, some dirt, anything."

Kara looked around the warehouse floor. "That, could take a while."

"Don't worry, take all the time you need," Barry said.

Kara lifted herself into the air and floated across the warehouse. She squinted as she stared at the floor in closeup. "This is so weird and I am never doing it again because whoa, vertigo."

"Sorry for making you do this," Barry said.

"No, you're right, it's important and if I can help stop Cadmus it'll be worth the headache. And even if we don't find anything it'll be worth the headache because at least I'm doing something."

"Sometimes that's the best you can do," Barry said.

"Hopefully Babs and Ollie…" Kara frowned. "Barry wait, I found something."

"That's great! What is it?"

"I don't know, they look like maybe fibers, but it's definitely different from everything else around it."

"Okay, uh, where?"

"Right there, in the middle." Kara floated over to the spot she pointed at and hovered over it while Barry collected the sample.

"These are definitely synthetic fibers. Let's hope they aren't from the warehouse guard's socks."

Kara clapped her hands together. "This is very exciting. Ooh, there's something else over there." She flew over to another spot and Barry followed after her.

After a further search Barry waved to Kara. "Okay, I think we've found enough evidence for me to examine."

"But is any of it useful?"

"I'll collect the shoes from the guards and workers so we can rule out any false leads."

Kara landed on the ground and planted her hands on her hips. "This is so cool. It's like I'm seeing a whole new side off you."

Barry finished securing the gathered evidence samples in his case. "What do you mean?"

"It's just I've seen you as Barry Allen: Superhero, and Barry Allen: Regular Guy, but this is Barry Allen: Scientist. It's a good look for you."

"You think?"

"Oh yeah definitely, it really sets you apart from the others heroes like me or Ollie."

"But what about Ray, or Cisco, or Caitlin, or Professor Stein?" Barry asked.

Kara's shoulders sagged. "Maybe it doesn't set you apart from them, but still it's nice to see your life outside the suit."

"So the next time I'm on your Earth I should follow you around while you're doing your job?"

"Sure, that would be fun," Kara said.

"I've got to take this back to the station, rules of evidence and all that, meet you back at STAR Labs when I'm done there?"

Kara needed her head. "Sure thing, don't take too long though."

Barry chuckled. "You know that's not a problem for me."

Kara cocked her head to one side. "That's way less funny than you thought it was." She lifted up off of the ground and hovered in the air. "We're going to find them right Barry?"

"We are definitely going to find and stop them before anyone else gets hurt," Barry said.

"That's what I want to hear." Kara gathered herself in mid-air then flew out of the warehouse through the window she arrived in.

"That's just never going to seem normal to me," Barry said to himself. "I can run through time, but the flying, invincible girl is a bridge too far."

* * *

"Are there any Cadmus updates?" Kara asked Caitlin and Cisco and she entered the Cortex.

Cisco looked up from his computer. "No, nothing, they've haven't even published any new videos today."

"Barry's off being a CSI at his CCPD lab," Kara said. She walked over to Cisco's workstation. "Is there anything else I can do to help out?"

Caitlin shook her head. "Not unless you want to help us move some heavy boxes around."

"I mean I can. I don't mind helping people move heavy things."

A klaxon from Cisco's meta human detector began to sound. "Saved by the crime rate," Cisco said. He typed n his keyboard. "WE have a bank robbery in progress."

"I can stop a bank robbery," Kara said. "In fact that's one of my specialities."

"If Barry is busy with his day job I don't see why the Girl of Steel can't fill in," Caitlin said to Cisco.

"Wally's available if you think you need any backup," Cisco said. "Which you don't because you're amazing, never mind me." He handed Kara the bank's address as she flew out of the room.

* * *

Kara burst through the doors of the bank and found a man in his mid-twenties standing in front of a small group of bank employees and customers. One of the man's hands glowed with a blue light, and there were several blast holes in the walls of the bank lobby.

"Stand down," Kara told the robber. "Otherwise this won't end in away you'll like."

"Who the hell are you?" The robber asked. "Where's the Flash?"

Kara set her hands on her hips. "I'm Superwoman. Flash has other business to attend to so I'm helping out."

"No, it was supposed to be the Flash," the robber said. He started to pace back and forth.

"Look buddy, I don't know what sort of fantasy you've built up in your head about how your big score was going to shake out, but I can promise you that it's not. Now turn off your hand, let these people go, and we can talk about your options."

"Uh Kara," Caitlin said into the radio back at STAR Labs. "I think there's something else going on here."

"Yeah," Cisco said. "I'm getting all sorts of weird radiological alarms. I think might be a…"

"Trap," Kara said. As she looked on the glow that surrounded the robber's hand grew to encompass his entire body. "Yeah I'm starting to get that idea too."

"No, this wasn't how it was supposed to happen," the robber said.

"How was what supposed to happen?" Kara asked. "Just power down and we can talk this over."

"Don't you get it, we're all going to die!" The glow surrounding the man intensified. The hostages that stood behind the robber edged their way closer to the back of the room.

Kara held out her hand to the robber. "Nobody has to die. Let's just take a deep breath. If you want to meet the Flash I can make that happen. All you have to do is power down."

"Kara, I don't think he can," Caitlin said. "Someone's overcharged his metahuman abilities and he's going critical."

Kara placed a finger on the radio in her ear. "Is there anything we can do to stop it?"

"The best we can do is get him to a safe distance before he explodes, and fast."

Kara looked over at the robber. "Are you sure?"

"We only have moments left before he levels city blocks," Caitlin said.

"Can't your metahuman dampeners keep him safe?"

"Kara there's no time! He's going to explode before even Barry could get him to STAR Labs," Cisco said.

"I promise you I won't leave your side," Kara said to the robber. "But we can't let you hurt anyone else." Before he could react she wrapped her arms around the robber and flew them both out of the bank and up into the air.

Cisco jumped out of his seat. "Kara what are you doing?"

"Saving as many lives as possible. How far up do I need to be?"

Cisco glanced at his computer. "Fifteen thousand feet should get the city out of the blast radius, are you sure…"

"If you can't stop him from exploding then at the very least someone will be here with him to the end."

The robber looked around at the rapidly descending ground and started to squirm in Kara's grip. "What, I, no."

"Listen to me," Kara said. "I'll be here with you until the end no matter what, but these are your powers, you control them. I don't care what anyone's done to you, they can't take that control away from you. So focus!" The robber closed his eyes and screws his face up into a look of concentration. The glow surrounding him started to fade. "You're doing it, you can do it," Kara said.

"I can't, it's too much. I can't hold onto it."

"You can, I believe in you," Kara said. She grabbed his right hand. "Focus on forcing all of that energy out of your body through your hand. Feel all of that energy flow out of your hand."

"Uh Supergirl, I don't mean to tell you how to do your job, but you're out of the danger zone for the city."

"I already told you Cisco, I'm here to the end bitter end, and he's doing it. He's getting control over his powers."

Cisco and Caitlin watched Kara and the robber on the feed from the STAR Labs satellite "Supergirl, his rate of energy accumulation hasn't slowed down, he's still going to go critical, and soon."

Kara looked the terrified man in the eyes. "Hey, what's your name?"

"Trevor, my name's Trevor."

"Okay Trevor, you're going to have to trust me, but I need you to release all your power."

"But you'll…"

"I'm holding you fifteen thousand feet in the air, don't worry about me. Imagine all the power you've channelled into your hand, now let it flow out of you, like you pulled the stopper on a drain."

Trevor held his hand out to the side. The glow that surrounded it intensified until there was a tremendous explosion that knocked Kara backwards. She lost her grip on Trevor and for a moment slipped unconscious.

From STAR Labs Cisco and Caitlin couldn't see anything on the satellite feed. "Supergirl, Kara, are you okay? Can you hear me?" Cisco asked into the radio.

"She should be fine Cisco, that blast wasn't strong enough to hurt her," Caitlin said. She patted Cisco on the shoulder. "Don't worry."

Back in the air Kara shook her head to clear out the cobwebs. When she realized she no longer had a hold on Trevor she looked around and saw him plummeting to the ground. "Oh no you don't." Kara dove after Trevor and caught him several hundred feet above the city. "I told you that you were going to be okay."

"If it's all the same to you I won't believe you until I'm on the ground," Trevor said. Kara smiled at him then flew off in the direction of STAR Labs.

* * *

After their arrival at STAR Labs, Trevor was lying on a bed in the examination room while Caitlin took his vitals. Kara entered the room and folded her arms in front of her. "So who's the patient doc?"

"Healthy," Caitlin said. She pulled her stethoscope out of her hears. "Despite the best efforts of whoever did this to him." She frowned. "There is one thing though. His meta powers are completely burned out."

"You mean I lost my powers?" Trevor asked.

"You're still a meta human, but right now you don't have access to your abilities. They might come back, but we'll have to wait and see."

"I'm not sure what to hope for," Trevor said. "I mean sure it's cool to shoot energy blasts out of my hands, but there aren't many jobs that require that kind of skill, you know?"

"Believe me, I know what you mean," Caitlin said. "Still, it's best to view your abilities as a gift, since it could be worse. You could be half-man, half-shark."

"That…there's a person like that?"

"It's a very long story," Caitlin said.

"Trevor, what do you remember about the people who took you?" Kara asked.

Trevor frowned. "I was minding my own business at the bar a couple of days ago. I'd had my couple of beers and was walking back to my car when everything went black. After that it's hazy. I do remember being strapped down to a bed, and there was this woman, a real mean sort. The next thing I remember clearly I was being shoved out of a van and a man told me that unless I robbed the bank I'd explode." He fell silent for a moment. "I guess that last part was a lie, I was going to blow up regardless."

Caitlin rested a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, we're here to help. You're safe now."

"You just rest up. We'll be right back," Kara said. She nodded at Caitlin and they left the examination room. The rest of the team was waiting for them outside.

"Kara, oh thank god you're safe," Barry said as he hugged her. "What you did was unbelievably brave."

"It's not really bravery if you know you can survive it," Kara said.

"Still, that was an enormous risk you took to save that guy," Wally said.

Kara shrugged. "I've taken bigger, and now we have a witness. Someone who's been to Cadmus's hideout."

"So you think it was Cadmus that turbocharged his powers and set him loose…Oh yeah, that does sound like something they would do," Cisco said.

"It was a trap for me, or Wally," Barry said. "They figured we'd run him to a safe place and then get caught in the explosion. But they didn't count on an invulnerable Kryptonian showing up and spoiling their plans. Which means we have our best shot at finding the Cadmus facility."

"You want me to Vibe him?" Cisco asked.

Barry rolled his eyes. "Yes Cisco, I want you to Vibe him. Find out where he's been in the past twenty-four hours."

Cisco picked up his Vibe glasses. "There's no need to be snippy, it was an honest question. You want me to Vibe him, I'll Vibe him."

"Could you maybe just get on with it and stop saying Vibe so much?" Kara asked. "I know that's your superhero name and all but," She twisted her hands together. "It's like saying moist if I'm being honest. At least when you say it that many times in a row like that."

"In that case I'll go find out what our guest knows but doesn't know he knows using my spooky super powers with the name that somebody here doesn't like," Cisco said before walking into the examination room.

"If it makes you feel any better Kara, I agree with you about the name, Vibe is just…" Iris shuddered. "But he's so proud of it." She shrugged her shoulders. "At this point it's not worth arguing about it with him."

"Boys, am I right?" Kara asked. They shared a laugh before following the others into the examination room where Cisco was explaining to Trevor what he was about to do.

"Okay Trevor, my name is, you know what, call me Vibe." Cisco paused to glare at Kara.

"Vibe?"

"Yes, Vibe, that is my superhero name, now can we move on? I'm going to use my powers on you to see where you've been and find out where the people who did this to you are. Does that sound okay to you?"

"Will it hurt?"

"It won't hurt you at all," Cisco said.

Trevor shrugged his shoulders. "Okay sure, I don't see why not."

Cisco took a deep breath then put a hand on Trevor's shoulder. "Alright, take a breath.' Cisco closed his eyes and let his Vibe powers take hold.

After a moment's disorientation Cisco found himself in the strange, washed out world of his power-induced visions. "I'm in an examination room" Cisco said to no one in particular. "They've got Trevor strapped to a bed and he's got an IV hooked up to him. The room has windows, but the curtains are drawn." Cisco walked over to the window and drew back the curtain. "I can see STAR labs from here, I know where this is." Cisco opened his eyes and the world snapped back into focus. "Guys, I know where Cadmus is."

Barry clapped his hands together. "Great, Kid Flash, Super, er, woman, you're with me. Hopefully Cadmus is still there and we can find some answers."

* * *

Kara smashed through the doors of the supposedly empty office building Cisco said Cadmus was using as a secret lab. She looked around the decrepit lobby but saw no signs of life. A check with her x-ray vision did not uncover anyone on the ground floor, but she did see plenty of equipment that suggested the building wasn't as abandoned as it appeared. Her enhanced hearing picked up the sound of an elevator and she dropped down into a crouch as she waited for the car to arrive at the lobby level. The elevator door opened with a ding and a large man dressed in fatigues stepped out. Over his left eye Kara could see a blinking circuit board.

"Guys, we found the right place. One of those supersoldeirs is here, stay back and let me handle him," Kara said into her radio. "Okay ugly, everyone's been saying how tough you are, lets go."

The Cadmus cyborg roared and charged at Kara. She met the charge and ducked under his punch. She then landed an uppercut to his jaw. The cyborg was lifted off the ground by the force of the blow and then fell backwards. He picked himself up off the ground then rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck before settling back into a fighting pose.

"So you can take a punch," Kara said. "Good to know." They circled each other for a moment before charging again. Kara allowed the cyborg to land several body blows before she caught one of his punchs in her hand. "You're strong too, that's nice." She pulled down his arm and held him in place. "I'm stronger though." She reached back with her free arm and punched the cyborg in the chest, sending him flying backwards into the elevator door, causing it to crumple. The circuitry on his head sparked and the cyborg slumped unconscious. "Okay, it's all clear," Kara said into the radio.

Barry and Wally then raced to a stop next to Kara. "Wow, so, uh, you really didn't need any help with the big guy," Barry said.

Kara dusted off her hands. "He really annoyed me."

"Remind me to never annoy you," Wally said.

"Don't worry Wally, I only punch of the bad people who annoy me."

"Okay, so Kara, why don't you stay here and make sure big and grumpy doesn't leave while Wally and I search the building."

"I already scanned the building," Kara said. "Nobody else is here, though you should check out the third floor and the basement."

"So, uh, if nobody is here how do we know the building hasn't been wired to explode?" Wally asked.

Barry looked over at Kara. "That's, that's a really good question."

"If they were going to demo the building they would've done so the moment you two showed up," Kara said.

Wally nodded his head. "That sounds plausible at least. Flash, you take the third floor, I'll search the basement."

Barry looked over at the ruined elevator. "I guess we're taking the stairs."

"Are you going to tie this guy up?" Wally asked Kara as he pointed at the unconscious cyborg.

"That's probably not a bad idea," Kara said. Barry and Wally ran off, leaving Kara behind with the unconscious Cadmus soldier. She pulled open the doors of the ruined elevator shaft then cut free the cable holding the elevator car suspended in the air. She used the heavy steel cable to truss the Cadmus soldier up then dusted off her hands. "Not a bad job of hog tying if I do say so myself," Kara said to the empty foyer with an affected Southern accent. With nothing else to do she sat down on a chunk of rubble and drummed her fingers on her knee.

She didn't have to wait very long before Barry and Wally returned to the lobby. "Nice knot work," Barry said.

"Thanks, Midvale 4H came in use for once," Kara replied.

"You were right, nobody else was in the building," Wally said. "But I did find a total horror show in the basement."

"I found the same on the third floor," Barry said. "Looks like your friend wasn't the first meta Cadmus experimented on."

"That's just ew," Kara said.

"It wasn't all bad," Wally said. "Well, not the experimentation, that was all bad, but I did find this." He held up a hard drive enclosure. "It was mixed in with a filling cabinet full of burned papers. Looks like they trashed the place on their way out and missed it."

"That's great work Kid Flash. We can get this back to STAR Labs and see if the team can pull any useful information off of it."

"I, uh, have a question," Kara asked, her hand raised like she was in a classroom. "What are we going to do with this guy when he wakes up?" She pointed at the trussed up cyborg.

"You mean that won't hold him?" Wally asked.

"Wouldn't hold me," Kara said. "Then again, he's not as strong as me, but do you really want to risk it?"

"We have cells in STAR Labs that can hold him," Barry said. "Come on, grab him and let's get out of here."

* * *

 _Author's Notes:_ So this took longer to get out the door than I intended it to, but the holidays kicked by ass, oh well. There's also probably a minor continuity error in Joe not recognizing Kara, but again oh well. I'm roughly halfway through the second draft of the last chapter so expect that in hopefully a month. Thanks again for reading.

-sam, 2018-01-15


	4. We Might Cheat Death If We Worship It

So We Can Stay Alive

by: Sam Lincoln

Disclaimer: All the characters contained in this story are the proper of DC Comics, and Warner Brothers. No infringement is intended.

Summary: While Kara Danvers is in Gotham looking to distract herself from the aftermath of the Daxamite Invasion Barry Allen shows up with a problem that needs her help to solve. Punching bad guys is an acceptable way of dealing with grief, right?

Spoilers: This story takes place during the hiatus before the 2017-2018 seasons for all of the CW:DC shows, though the only finale that plays a role in the story is Supergirl's.

Chapter 3: We Might Cheat Death if We Worship It.

* * *

Back at STAR Labs the group stood around a monitor displaying the security feed from the cell holding the Cadmus super soldier. "And you're sure he's not going to break out of there?" Iris asked Cisco.

"Thee air in that cell is being pumped full of enough sedatives to knock out Mr. Allen," Harry said. "It should be enough to keep our prisoner docile, and failing hat we already have Supergirl."

Kara looked around the room. "Where's Trevor?"

"He checked out for now, so Joe took him home," Caitlin said. "The CCPD will keep on an eye on him until we've dealt with Cadmus."

Kara nodded her head. "Good, that's good, I do wish I'd gotten the chance to say goodbye to him."

"He told us to tell you that he's forever grateful for you saving his life," Cisco said. "And so I am. I never apologized to you for doubting your ability to save him."

Kara leaned over and hugged Cisco. "It's okay, if it was anyone else you made the right call. Well, apart from my cousin Kal, or maybe J'onn, but other than that, right call."

"Thanks Kara," Cisco said.

"Caitlin, can't we pump him full of Mirakuru cure and be done with it?" Barry asked as he continue to stare at the monitor.

Caitlin shook her head. "It seems his body is continually replenishing the Mirakuru in his system, probably through his cybernetic implants. She pressed a button on the keyboard next to her and the display of the security feed was replaced by a picture of the cyborg showing the extent of his cybernetic implants. "It's amazing work they've done to this man, horrific, but amazing."

"Is it reversible?"

"Given enough time yes," Caitlin said. "But that's just a guess right now."

"If we can't get the Mirakuru out of him, how do we keep him in a jail cell?" Barry asked.

"We're in luck that Cadmus is completely evil," Cisco said. "They built a control circuit in his head. If we have the proper code we can shut off his cybernetics."

"Will that kill him?" Kara asked.

"They aren't that intertwined with his vital organs," Cailint said. "But it will mostly likely leave him in an extremely impaired mental state. It's not perfect, but the best we can do with a bad situation."

"So we need a code," Wally said. "How do we get it?"

"It's not on the hard drive you found if that's what you're asking," Cisco said. "There's loads of interesting things about their logistics, but no control codes."

Kara turned to face Cisco. "Logistics are good. We can use that to find their other bases."

"That's a good idea, the only problem is there's a lot of data on here and it's going to take a while to collate everything."

"So what do we do in the meantime?" Kara asked.

Cisco shrugged. "Play tiddlywinks?"

"Or you could shut down Cadmus," Oliver said as he led his team into the room. Kara caught sight of Barbara and gave her a short wave.

"Ollie, good to see you," Barry said. "What are you doing here?"

"With Barbara's help we were able to decrypt several files Cadmus left behind at Argus."

"So you know everything they were working on before they went rogue," Cisco said.

"Good job Babs!" Kara said. She clapped for her friend.

"Do we have their location then?" Barry asked.

"No, but we do know how to shut down the cyborgs," Curtis said. His shoulders then sagged. "The only problem is the signal needs a specific digital key, and the only way to get that key is to transmit it from a specific Cadmus terminal."

Iris rubbed the bridge of her now. "So we're back to needing to know where their base is."

"I know where they are," Kara said.

"You don't even live in this dimension, how could you possibly know?" Cisco asked.

"I know Cadmus, and I know the multiverse has a sick sense of humor," Kara said. "Logically there's only one place they could be, National City."

"That isn't logical at all," Barbara said. "You're using the opposite of logic."

Oliver said. "I don't know much about how all this alternate reality stuff works, but that feels like too much of a coincidence to be true."

"You have good instincts Mr. Queen," Harry said. "While there are obviously similarities between alternate realities, it's their differences that set them apart. You don't exist on this Earth Ms. Danvers, Mr. Allen doesn't exist in yours…" his speech was cut off by Kara dashing out of STAR Labs at a high rate of speed. Harry sighed. "She's going to National City." He pushed the transmit button on the radio next to him. "You're going to National City."

"Sorry," Kara said over the radio. "But I have to investigate this."

"Be careful and let us know if you find anything," Oliver said. He reached over and lifted Harry's hand off of the radio, cutting the line off. "She needs to do this and she can obviously take care of herself. I say we let her take the detour." He surveyed the room, looking everyone in the eye. "What we need to focus on is coming up with a plan of attack when we do find Cadmus."

"It's a little hard to plan an attack if you don't know where you're attacking," Barbara said.

Oliver frowned at Barbara. "A fact I'm well aware. I'm open to suggestions if you have a better idea for what we should be doing."

Barbara held up here hands. "I'm just here as a guest. I won't try to tell you how to superhero. "

"Cisco, why don't you and Curtis go over the data we took from Cadmus. That's our best lead at the moment," Barry said.

Cisco and Curtis shared a glance. "Barry, we're both gadget guys building tech is what we do…" Cisco started to say before he cowered under the combined glare of Barry and Oliver. "And now we're going to do pattern recognition on shipping data."

"Snow and I will be in my lab reviewing the data Cadmus stole from Argus," Harry said. "We'll see if there are any vulnerabilities in their designs we can exploit."

"Right, that's a good idea," Caitlin said. She and Harry picked their way past everyone else in the room on their way out the door.

While the others milled around Cisco's desk. Dinah sidled up to Iris. "These are some nice digs you have. Much better lit than our bunker in Star City."

"It figures the Green Arrow would have a bunker as his secret base," Iris said. "Not that we're all that much better. By the way, I love the costume."

Dinah looked down at her Black Canary costume. "Thanks, I'm still getting used to the idea of being a superhero and wearing this freaks me out a little if I'm being honest."

Iris patted Dinah on the arm. "Don't worry about it, you're doing a great job. I've heard nothing but good things."

Dinah raised an eyebrow. "You've heard things?"

Iris nodded in Cisco's direction. "He and Felicity gossip like old women at church on Sundays."

"So I'm gossip worthy." A smile played across Dinah's face. "Hear anything good?"

"Nothing I'm going to tell you, Iris West is no snitch."

"That's fair." Dinah readjusted one of her gloves. "I just hope we figure out where these Cadmus creeps are. I don't like the idea of people out there looking to kill me because of my abilities."

"You certainly didn't ask to have your body altered by a wave of dark matter energy," Iris said.

Dinah shook her head. "That I didn't." Iris patted Dinah on the shoulder before walking over to Barry. Dinah frowned for a moment before approaching Oliver. "So all we have to do is wait?"

"It is the hardest part I've heard," Oliver said.

"Ain't that the truth."

"You're a detective Dinah, why don't you help Cisco and Curtis?"

"We both know I'm not that kind of detective," Dinah said. "Besides, you look like you needed someone to keep you company."

Oliver raised his eyebrows. "When have you ever known me to need anyone to keep me company?"

"Right now for starters," Dinas said to Oliver's obvious amusement. "You don't have Dig around to shield you from all the big brains in the room."

Oliver started to reply but then closed his mouth as he thought over what Dinah said. "That, okay, that's a good point." Oliver and Dina leaned back against the wall as they watched everyone else scurry around them.

* * *

Barbara looked up from the computer she'd be using to read the Internet. "Is there any word from Kara?" Barbara asked.

Oliver pushed himself away from the wall. "No, but even for her it takes time to go back and forth to National City."

"Still, you'd think she would've contacted us."

"You think she's in trouble?" Barry asked.

"She's Supergirl on a world with a yellow sun and no Kryptonite. There's only so much trouble she can get into."

"If it makes you feel any better, we still have a fix on her radio," Cisco said. "And if you really want we could task the satellite to track her down."

"No that's okay," Barbara said. "I'm just being overly concerned."

"Is this about Mon-El?" Barry asked.

Barbara paused before nodding her head. "She's been, I don't want to say self-destructive, but not herself since he left." She paused again. "Or maybe she's been herself amplified."

"How do you mean?" Iris asked.

"Let me guess, she's thrown herself into being Supergirl to the exclusion of everything else?" Oliver asked.

"Yes, exactly, how did you know?"

Oliver flexed his hands. "Let's just say I have some experience. I'll talk to her when she gets back."

"Ollie are you, uh, sure that's a good idea?" Barry asked.

"Yes, Barry, I think it is," Oliver replied.

Barry held up his hands in surrender and walked away from Oliver. "Where are we on finding Cadmus?" he asked Curtis.

Curtis stared at Barry, caught by the unexpectedness of the question. He adjusted his glasses before speaking. "We've uh, narrowed it down, but we don't have the exact location nailed down."

"Can I help with that?" Barbara asked. She walked over to the computer Cisco and Curtis were working on.

"Sure, we're trying to collate this list of shipping invoices and cross-reference it with a list of known Cadmus facilities that Argus already shut down," Curtis said.

"So you're looking for holes in the data, that makes sense." Barbara elbowed Cisco out of her way and started to type on his keyboard.

"Hey rude much?" Cisco asked.

Curtis tapped Cisco on the shoulder. "Don't sweat it man, watch and enjoy."

"Watch what?" Cisco asked. His mouth dropped open in amazement as he saw Barbara eliminate locations from their list of possibilities. "How are you doing this?"

"Simple, I'm looking for the holes," Barbara said. "Consider all of this as a distraction. Find the pattern that's under the data and voila!" She hit the entire key and a single name was displayed on the monitor.

"Just like Kara thought, National City," Curtis said.

"Not quite." Barbara jabbed her finger on the point highlighted on the map. "On our Earth this wasn't where Cadmus was hiding."

Barry took a closer look at the map. "That's the old DEO headquarters."

Barbara sighed. "If you thought Kara was angry before, now she's going to be really mad."

"Get Kara back here," Oliver said. "We need to come up with a plan of attack."

"Before you do that, have her do a few flyovers and get a sense of their compound's layout," Barbara said. "That's the entire reason she flew out there in the first place after all."

Oliver gave Barbara a curt nod. "Make it happen." He then walked out of the lab.

Barbara pointed at the microphone sticking out of the desk. "Is that tied to the radio?" Cisco nodded in the affirmative. Barbara pushed the transmit button on the radio. "Supergirl, you listening in?" She held her breath as she waited for a replay.

"Batgirl, good to hear from you, yeah I'm here," Kara said.

Barbara exhaled. "We hadn't heard from you in a while, so some of us were a little worried."

"Sorry, sorry, the lead I was chasing down was a bust but I didn't want to head back just yet."

Barbara could hear the note of hurt in Kara's voice. "That might be for the best. We, uh, we have a new location for you to check out."

"That's great, where?"

"The DEO command bunker," Barbara said. The other end of the line went dead. "Supergirl, do you copy?"

"No, yeah, I heard you," Kara said. "I suppose that makes sense. I guess Green Arrow wants me to map out the floorpan of the bunker in case it doesn't match the one on our Earth?"

Barbara hung her head. "Actually that was my idea. He wanted you to come right back."

"You're right, the more we know about the Cadmus base the better."

"Supergirl, I'm sorry, I wouldn't ask you to do this if it wasn't important."

"You have nothing to apologize for. This is why I flew to National City."

"Hopefully you won't see an evil version of Alex," Barbara said.

"She won't," Cisco said. "We checked and there are no Danvers on this Earth."

"That's a relief," Kara said. "Okay, I can see the DEO. I'll be back soon and let you know what I find out."

"Be careful Kara," Barbara said.

"Believe me, I will be," Kara said. "I'm far away away from the base."

"Okay, we'll talk when you get back then," Barbara switched off the radio and looked over at the rest of the group. "So all we have to do is get ready to attack Cadmus."

"Do you know anything about the version of this place on your Earth?" Wally asked.

Barbara shook her head. "I never had the pleasure, but your friend Barry did." She pointed at Barry who blinked several times.

"How did you know that?" Barry asked.

"Simple, you said you'd been to the DEO before, but not their current headquarters. It's not much of a reach to figure out the bunker was the place you visited."

"The girl's a detective, I'll give her that," Cisco said to Curtis.

"And she can kick your ass," Curtis said.

"The list of people who can do that is as long as my arm," Cisco said.

"So Barry, is there anything you can tell us about this bunker?" Dinah asked.

Barry walked around the room and came to a stop in front of the mannequin they stored his suit on. "I don't know, it was your typical top secret government base. If you can ever call a place like that typical."

"We live a very strange life," Iris said.

"Tell me about it," Barbara replied.

"From what I recall there were a lot of security checkpoints and locked doors. If the Cadmus version is anything like the DEO this won't be easy."

"Then it's a good thing we'll have the ultimate door kicker with us," Wally said.

"Caitlin, do you feel up to helping us take them down?" Barry asked. "Your powers could come in handy."

"You have powers?" Barbara asked Caitlin.

"Yes, but I don't like myself when I use them," Caitlin said. "Sorry Barry, I know how serious this is, but I can't risk Killer Frost getting loose."

"That's fair, we can make do without you, it's fine," Barry said.

"I feel like I'm letting the team down," Caitlin said.

"That's not true at all, besides we need your technical experience at STAR Labs more," Oliver said. Cisco wrapped an arm around Caitlin and gave her a quick hug.

"Thanks Oliver, I'll do my best," Caitlin said.

* * *

Kara landed on the roof of STAR Labs after returning from National City. She approached the door but then stopped and rolled her eyes. "I can see you Ollie."

Oliver stepped out from behind and AC unit. "There's no hiding from you is there?"

"The Cadmus base has the same layout as the DEO on my world."

"Good to know, but that's not what I wanted to talk to you about."

Kara's shoulders slumped. "Is this about Mon-El?"

"I wanted to talk to you about you," Oliver said.

Kara sighed. "Do we really have time for this?"

Oliver readjusted his grip on his bow. "Yes, I think we do."

"Can I just stop you right there," Kara held up a hand to Oliver. "You want to talk to me about Mon-El don't you?"

"That's a part of it, but mostly I want to talk about how you are, and spare me the speech about how you know how to deal with grief. I saw my father shoot himself in the head. I watched as a madman ran my mother through with a sword. I thought like you did. That after all the death I'd seen, all the loved ones I'd lost that Id faintly become hardened to it." Oliver drew in a deep breath. "But then I watched as Laurel, the first woman I ever truly loved, and who I might still have been with if I hadn't been such an ass ten years ago, die and you know what? It wasn't any easier. In fact it was even harder to deal with."

"So if that's true then what should I do about it?" Kara asked.

Oliver shrugged. "If I knew that I probably wouldn't be running around at night shooting arrows at people." Kara smiled at Oliver's joke. "But seriously, allow yourself time to grieve as yourself, and not Supergirl. That's about all the advice I've got."

Kara tensed as if she was about to argue Oliver's point before sighing again. "I'll, I'll think about it, how does that sound?"

Oliver smiled at Kara. "That sounds pretty good. Now tell me all about the Cadmus base." He stepped to one side and he and Kara walked towards the roof top entrance to STAR Labs.

"How long exactly were you standing out here waiting for me?" Kara asked Oliver.

"Long enough, I didn't mind though. Everyone else in there is busy pouring over computers or making things."

"In other words nothing you're good at," Kara said. She clasped her hands behind her back and skipped along next to Oliver.

"Haha very funny," Oliver said. "Do you think you could help Cisco and Harry building a target EM cannon?"

Kara tapped on her temple. "My heat vision is a really good soldering gun. Plus I can lift heavy stuff."

"I can't compete with a walkingd forklift that's true," Oliver said. He chuckled at the look of indignation that spread across Kara's face.

"Watch it mister, I can drop kick you into low earth orbit, and don't think I've never thought about doing that to people before."

Oliver bit back the smile on his face. "Of course. In the future I'll be more careful." He pulled open the door and held it open for Kara. "After you Ms. Danvers."

"Why thank-you Oliver, and I meant what I said before, not the drop kicking you part, but the other stuff, and not in a perfunctory sort of way either."

"Thanks Kara, I'm glad one of us stubborn superheros can listen to reason."

"That's because I'm a girl, we're naturally more logical than you boys."

"That must be it," Oliver said. Kara walked into STAR Labs and Oliver followed, letting the door shut behind him.

* * *

The assembled teams stood around Oliver as he laid out their plan of attack. "Okay everyone, listen up. We know how to stop Cadmus." Oliver looked over at Curtis and Cisco. "We know how to stop them right?"

Curtis flashed Oliver a thumbs up. "Totally, will not be a problem."

"We hope."

"Way to instill confidence Cisco," Oliver said. "The plan is simple. There is a transmitter in the Cadmus base that keeps the cyborgs running. We send a team into the base to use the transmitter to send the kill code." Kara held up her hand. "Kara, you don't…yes Kara, what is it?"

"This isn't, like an actual kill code is it? You're just speaking metaphorically right?"

"I, uh, guys?" Oliver asked the STAR Labs team.

"Relax Ms. Danvers. Mr. Queen was speaking metaphorically," Harry said. "This is the code Mr. Ramon was talking about before. It won't kill the cyborgs, merely shut down their cybernetics."

"But that will also leave them in a vegetative state, that's what you said right?" Kara asked.

"You've never seen someone under the influence of Mirakuru Kara, they are dangerous," Oliver said. "Believe me, if the Mirakuru cure doesn't work we are all better off with them in a coma because no prison can hold them."

"Okay, okay you've made your point," Kara said.

"How are you planning on getting the team into base?" Barbara asked "There's only one point of entrance."

"Fortunately for us that isn't true," Barry said. "Right Cisco?"

Cisco nodded his head. "I can Vibe us in there, sure, no problem."

"I'm convinced," Dinah said.

"Hey, hey I can open portals to wherever we need to go," Cisco said. "Don't worry, I'll get us there."

"Cisco will Vibe the infiltration team into the base to transmit the shutdown code," Oliver said, cutting off the discussion. "Meanwhile the rest of us will stage a frontal assault to keep Cadmus occupied."

Kara nodded her head. "That makes sense. Who do you want doing what?"

"Barry, Dinah, Kara and Wally, and myself are all going to be part of the diversion team." Kara held up her hand to Barry who gave her a high five. "The infiltration team needs to be small and know how to deal with tech problems: Barbara, Cisco, Curtis, that's on you."

"Just them? But what if they run into a cyborg?" Wally asked.

"Cisco has powers, Curtis has his…balls," Oliver said.

"They're called T-Spheres," Curtis said.

"And Barbara knows how to fight. They'll be able to hold their own."

"That is a remarkable amount of confidence you're placing in us Oliver," Curtis said.

Oliver raised an eyebrow. "Is it misplaced?"

"Oh no, not at all, not at all, we'll get the job done, right Cisco?"

"You know it." The pair bumped fists.

"Good luck Babs," Kara said to her friend sotto voce.

"Without their Mirakuru super soldiers, the rest of Cadmus should be easy to round up," Olvier said.

"And even if we don't shut them down Kara should be able to subdue them sooner or later," Barry said.

"Yeah, I really don't want to have to do that, so please shut them down," Kara said.

"We'll get it done," Barbara said.

"Harry, you and Caitlin can coordinate from here, loop in Felicity as well."

Kara rubbed her hands together. "And we can make one hell of a distraction."

"We'll attack the base first and then you'll portal your team in Cisco," Oliver said.

"You got it," Cisco replied.

"Do we know where exactly in the base the transmitter is?" Barbara asked.

"No, but Mr. Ramon should be able to figure that out by using his Vibe powers on the Cadmus agent we have in our custody," Harry said.

"Kara would you mind helping me with that so I don't get turned into a gooey paste?" Cisco asked.

Kara saluted Cisco. "You got it. I'll do whatever you need me to."

"Once Cisco has the location of the transmitter we can move out," Oliver said. "Does anyone have any questions?" Oliver looked around the room and was met with silence. "Okay, in that case, do what you need to do to get ready." Oliver spun on his heels and walked out of the room.

* * *

Cisco and Kara stood outside the cell in the Pipeline that held the capture Cadmus agent. Kara peered through the window at the unconscious man. "Do we know anything about him?"

"No, but then again we haven't looked too hard," Cisco said. "But in addition to the Mirakuru he's had a crazy amount of cybernetics implanted in him. He's not quite more machine than man, but close."

"I feel sorry for him," Kara said. "He reminds me of something the Cadmus on my Earth did. Except they used Kryptonite, the remains of my home world, which is toxic to me, to power their cyborg. Not this Mirakuru stuff."

"It's weird, and maybe a little comforting that there are so many similarities between our worlds," Cisco said.

"I guess that's why they call them parallel worlds," Kara said.

"Must be, are you ready to do this?"

"I don't know what this is, but sure," Kara said.

"Just make sure Frankenstein's monster there doesn't get free while I Vibe him," Cisco said. "And that even assumes he wakes up, which he shouldn't given all the sedative in his system."

"But it's always better to be prepared right?" Cisco nodded in reply. "Okay, let's do this."

Cisco input a code into the cell door's lock and the anesthetic gas in the cell was sucked out by a fan in the ceiling. The door swung open and Cisco took a deep breath before stepping inside.

"How does this work?" Kara asked Cisco. "I mean I've seen you open portals and that's cool, but how does that help us here?"

Cisco held up a finger to his mouth. "Just watch." He placed a hand on the agent's arm and closed his eyes. "Okay, I'm in the Cadmus base and the transmitter is in a big room, look pretty central to the, no wait. It's in a room off of that down a hallway. It's circular, and there aren't any windows. Which should be obvious because it's a bunker."

While Cisco talked the cyborg started to stir. "Uh Cisco, I don't mean to rush you, but he's starting to wake up," Kara said. "If it helps I'm pretty sure I know the room you're talking about." When Cisco didn't respond Kara pushed him away from the Cadmus soldier.

Cisco's eyes snapped open as he staggered backwards. "What was that for?" he saw the cyborg struggling against his bonds. "Run!"

Kara punched the cyborg in the face and the pair ran out of the cell. Cisco keyed a code into the lock causing the door to swing back shut and the gas began to pump back into the room. They looked in the cell and watched as the cyborg's struggling slowed, then ceased.

"That was far too exciting," Cisco said.

"But at least we got the information we needed," Kara said.

"Yep, we can go raid a violent terrorist organization's secret lair," Cisco said. "Who thought this was a good idea?"

"We're the only ones standing in the way of a lot of people dying," Kara said. "Good idea, bad idea, that doesn't matter if we can save lives."

"I get it, I get it, still, yikes. This is big."

Kara coked her head to one side. "You're good right?"

"Of course I'm good, just a little jitters before the mission you know?" Cisco shook his head. "No, you probably don't, you're Supergirl after all."

Kara put her hand on Cisco's shoulder. "No, I get it, and it's perfectly normal."

"I know, but considering all the people around me right now who will jump on a grenade without a moment's hesitation. It's a bit of a high bar for those of us who aren't invulnerable, or have an accelerated healing factor. Sill, I'm here and I'm going to do the job, no question."

Kara wrapped an arm around Cisco. "Great, let's get to it."

* * *

Several hours later, under the cover of night, Oliver lay on the reverse slope of a small rise that overlooked the Cadmus compound. He surveyed the grounds with a pair of binoculars. Kara crawled up next to him. "See anything good?" She asked.

"The guards are in the middle of a shift change," Oliver replied. "Here, see for yourself." He started to pass the binoculars to Kara, but caught himself when he saw her staring intently at the compound with her hands miming holding a pair of binoculars. "You didn't need to come up here to see this did you?"

"Nope," Kara said.

"And this is your way of telling me that I didn't need to come up here to scout ahead."

"Yep."

Oliver grunted then took another look through his binoculars. "It's still good to see things for yourself."

Kara rolled her eyes. "Everyone else is waiting for you." She pushed herself up and crept back down the hill. Oliver drew in a deep breath then followed Kara back to the rest of the team.

"Did you see what you needed to?" Barry asked Oliver.

Oliver adjusted his grip on his bow. "Yes, if we want to cause the biggest possible distraction we have to attack now." The team climbed back up the rise so they could look at the compound.

"Okay, one distraction, coming right up," Kara said. She flew up into the sky away from the base then turned and dove for the front gate. As she flew over the rest of the team she broke the sound barrier, causing a sonic boom to echo over the desert. Kara barrelled through the front gate, ripping the chain link fence off of its hinges.

"I'd call that a distraction," Wally said to no one in particular. They watched as a jeep flew through the air.

"We can't let her have all the fun," Barry said. He tapped Wally on the chest. "Come one, let's go help out." He and Wally raced off, leaving the rest of the team behind in a cloud of dust.

"Remember Cisco, five minutes then portal your team into the base," Oliver said.

"Wait, my team? You mean I'm in charge?"

Oliver pursed his lips together. "Of course not. Batgirl's in charge." He climbed onto his motorcycle and gunned the engine.

"But she isn't even from this dimension," Cisco said. In response Oliver peeled off towards the base with Dinah close behind him. "Uh no offense," Cisco said to Barbara, who was standing next to him.

"Don't worry about it," Barbara said. "Just get us to the right spot."

"In five minutes, right, I remember," Cisco said. He double-checked the fit of his Vibe gloves then looked over at the battle taking shape in the Cadmus compound.

Kara lifted and threw an olive-drab truck towards a hanger. As the truck hit the apex of its flight she ignited its fuel tank with her heat vision. The truck exploded and rained flaming debris over the compound.

"You think you might want to save some of them for the rest of us?" Barry asked as he came to a stop next to Kara. They both watched as Wally streaked by them and then punched out a trio of Cadmus guards.

Oliver and Dinah pulled up to a stop just inside the gate. Oliver drew back his bow and fired and arrow at an above ground gas tank next to the motor pool The arrow found its mark and the tank erupted in a giant fireball. Dinah leapt off her motorcycle and unleashed a Canary Cry at a guard tower, shredding the wooden structure.

The door to the bunker opened and ten Mirakuru super solders ran out into the compound's yard, as the other Cadmus guards retreated back into the bunker. "Here we go," Oliver said. He readjusted his aim and fired at the lead cyborg. The arrow caught the cyborg in the chest, but instead of falling down he reached up and pulled the arrow out.

Dinah looked over at Oliver. "That's not a good sign."

"That's why we brought her along," Oliver said and pointed at Kara who flew into the center of the pack and punched the soldier Oliver had shot so hard it knocked him back twenty feet. One of the other cyborgs grabbed Kara's cape and used it to throw her towards Dinah and Oliver. They dove out of the way as Kara crashed into the ground.

Kara stood up and settled into a fighting pose. Dinah and Oliver lined up next to her and the two speedsters came to a step next to the trio with Barry standing next to Oliver while Wally flanked Dinah. "Those jerks are standing between us and where we want to be," Kara said. She clenched her fists tighter. "Let's fix that."

Oliver knocked an arrow in his bow. "Supergirl go up the middle, Black Canary and I will cover you. Flash, Kid Flash keep our flanks clear. Don't stop until you reach the bunker door."

Barry tensed like a sprinter in the starting blocks. "Got it, good luck everyone." Lighting started to crackle around him.

"You too Flash," Kara said. She launched herself at the center of the cyborg formation with the others close behind her.

From the other side of the rise Barbara, Cisco and Curtis could hear the sounds of the battle. Curtis winced at every explosion while Cisco stared at his watch. "Okay, it's been five minutes, let's do this, Curtis are you ready?"

"Yes, I'm ready," Curtis said. "Why don't you ask Barbara if she's ready."

"Because I already know the answer to that," Cisco said.

Barbara arched an eyebrow at Cisco. "Oh you do?"

"Of course. You were ready the moment you woke up this morning, and you didn't even know this was how your day was going to wind up. You're just that sort of badass."

"So what does that make me?" Curtis asked. "No wait, don't answer that. Just open the portal so we can get this over with."

Barbara drew a batarang from her utility belt. "Light it up Cisco."

"Just remember, it's Vibe and Mr. Terrific Batgirl," Cisco said.

Barbara sighed. "I won't forget your silly codenames, Vibe."

"We can debate who has the silliest codenames later. Right now though, let's go beat up some terrorists." Cisco raised his arm and opened a portal. "Ladies first," he told Barbara with a bow.

Barbara leapt through the portal and found herself standing in the middle of a large room hewn out of rock. She was surrounded by computer terminals and surprised technicians. Curtis then Cisco landed next to her and the portal behind them vanished. "I don't think we were as stealthy as we wanted to be," Barbara said. She threw her drawn batarang at a guard carrying a machine gun, knocking the man unconscious. "Which way to the transmitter?" Barbara leapt over a computer terminal and knocked out the two technicians sitting in front of it.

"This all looked very different when people weren't firing at me!" Cisco said.

Curtis pulled out one of his T-Spheres. "I programmed this guy to track down the radio frequency the transmitter uses. It'll find it in no time."

Cisco ducked behind a desk as a guard ran into the room and opened on them. "That's good because no time is all the time we have available." He fired a blast of energy at the guard which sent him flying across the room.

Curtis gave the T-Sphere a quick rub then threw it towards the center of the room. The T-Sphere ricocheted off a surprised Cadmus scientist before racing off down a hallway that lead deeper into the bunker. "This way," Curtis shouted at Cisco before he followed the T-Sphere down the hall. Cisco fired a large wave of energy at the Cadmus guards, knocking them to the ground. Barbara dropped the guard she was fighting then threw a smoke grenade to cover their retreat from the room.

Curtis rounded a corner then quickly skidded to a halt. Cisco didn't noticed and crashed into him. "Dude, why did you stop?" he asked Curtis.

"Because the transmitter is in the room past him." Curtis pointed at the hulking guard standing in front of the door.

"Oh great," Cisco said. "I'll distract him and you shut down the transmitter."

"Vibe, form a portal behind him," Barbara yelled as she ran towards them.

"What, why?" Cisco asked.

"Do it!" Barbara yelled.

"Okay, okay no need to shout," Cisco held up his hand then lowered it. "Wait, a portal to where?"

"Anywhere!"

Cisco held his hand back up and a portal formed behind the cyborg. Barbara leapt and kicked the guard in the head. The hit staggered the cyborg and he fell backwards into the portal.

"Where did you send him?" Curtis asked Cisco.

"Just outside," Cisco replied.

"Good work, but we're not out of the woods yet," Barbara said. She opened the transmitter room door.

Inside they found a large radio transmitter attached to a computer terminal Barbara walked over to the terminal and started to type on the keyboard. "Okay, I'm in do you have the shutdown code?"

Cisco and Curtis shared a look. "Not, uh, exactly," Curtis said. "It's a one time cypher so we needed access to the system to even generate the code, let alone transmit it."

Barbara stepped away from the computer. "Okay Mr. Terrific, you get to work on that while Vibe and I hold off Cadmus."

"Why me?" Curtis asked.

Barbara raised an eyebrow. "So you'd rather go out there and fight?"

"Oh right, the rogue government agents, you make a compelling point. I'll get to work."

"Hey don't I get any say in this?" Cisco asked.

"You're the only one of the three of us with actual super powers man," Curtis replied.

Barbara put her hands on Curtis's shoulders and spun him around. "Less talk, more hack."

"Uh yes, yes ma'am," Curtis said. "One hacked computer coming up." He sat down in front of the computer and began to type.

Barbara and Cisco moved to opposite sides of the door. "Okay Sundance, how do you want to play this?" Cisco asked Barbara.

"You think you're Butch in this scenario?"

"I didn't think you'd want to be Butch, no judging if the answer's yes though."

Barbara reached over and smacked Cisco on the side of the head. "Focus. When I open the door you're going to fire, whatever it is you fire, as big as you can down the hallway."

"And what good will that do?"

"It will give me an opening to get in close and hold them off long enough for Mr. Terrific to turn off the cyborgs so the rest of the team can save us."

"Okay, solid plan."

"Hey Cisco, how's it going down there?" Barry asked over the radio. "Any closer to stopping these unstoppable cyborgs?"

"You bet buddy, Curtis is one it. How are you guys doing out there?"

Barry watched as Kara threw two cyborgs into each other, then swooped across the compound to knock a third away from Oliver. Dinah blasted another into the side of a truck with a Canary Cry and he saw Wally go bounding past him after a lucky punch connected. Wally picked himself up off of the ground and pummeled his attacker with a flurry of punches. "Oh you know, we're hanging in there, but the sooner you transmit that code the better."

"Don't worry buddy, we're on it," Cisco said.

"Okay, no pressure, but we really could use this wrapped up," Barry said.

"I'm working on it, I'm working on it," Curtis said. "Overwatch, I'm opening a port in their firewall. Help me out with this."

In the bunker Felicity spun around in her chair and faced her computer terminal. "What have we got?" She asked Curtis.

"I've generated the code for the shutdown sequence," Curtis said. "The problem is we also need an authorization to send the code globally."

"So we need to crack their authorization before we can transmit the sleep code, got it," Felicity said. "That shouldn't be too hard." Felicity's screen started to flash as the system rejected her attempt to override the security on the radio. "Or maybe not." She frowned and tried again.

Barbara looked over at Cisco. "Okay, are you ready to do this?"

Cisco grimaced. "Close enough."

"On my mark then." Barbara reached over and pulled open the doors Cisco leaned out into the doorway and fired a blast of energy down the hall, knocking down all the Cadmus security personal advancing towards them. Barbara leapt out of the radio room and started to punch the Cadmus security before they had a chance to recover.

Felicity pounded on her desk in frustration after another unsuccessful attempt to crack the system's security. "Damnit, they're using a two-factor authentication system. There's no way we can crack this."

"We need one of their security tokens," Curtis said. The sound of gunfire outside the radio room caused him to flinch in his seat.

"Flash, I'm opening the door to the bunker," Felicity said over the radio. "You need to find one of their security tokens and bring it to Mr. Terrific."

Barry tossed a bolt of lightning at a cyborg before he toggled on his radio. "Security token, what does it look like?"

"It's a USB stick," Curtis said.

"USB stick, right got it," Barry said. "Can you guys handle things out here while I'm gone?" Barry asked the other members of the team.

"So help me, you had better go get that security token or I am going to punch you into the next state," Kara said. One of the Cadmus super soldiers jumped on her back but she tossed him off of her.

"One security token coming up," Barry ran past the soldier guarding the door and raced into bunker. Quicker than the eye could follow Barry ran through the complex, rifling through the pockets of every Cadmus employee he came across until he eventually found a USB fob. "Hey guys, I found one."

"That's great Barry, now get it to Curtis," Felicity said.

"Curtis, right," Barry said. He ran through the fighting, knocking off the aim of one Cadmus guard shooting at Barbara as he went. Barry came to a stop next to Curtis and handed him the fob. "Here you go."

Curtis pulled off a loose sheet of paper that had blown onto his face from Barry's arrival. "Great, thanks."

"Cool, if you're all set here, I'll go help Batgirl and Vibe." Barry ran off, kicking up a fresh cloud of loose papers.

"I am so glad I don't have to put up with that every day," Curtis said to himself. He plugged the USB fob into the computer.

Barry burst out of the radio room and in a blur of red and gold knocked out all of the Cadmus guards in the hallway. "Hey guys," he said to Barbara and Cisco. "How are you?"

"How do you stand living with that day in and day out?" Barbara asked Cisco.

"How do you stand being around Supergirl?" Cisco replied.

"Easy, I live in Gotham, she lives in National City," Barbara said. "In small doses she's not so bad."

Cisco snapped his fingers. "Live in another city, that's a great idea that won't work for me."

"I guess you're screwed then," Barbara said.

"Guys, can we focus on Cadmus, please?" Barry asked the pair.

"Mr. Terrific, how are we coming with that radio now?" Barbara asked Curtis.

"We've almost got it." Curtis slammed the enter key. "There, sleep command sent."

In the compound grounds Kara reeled back to punch a cyborg threatening Oliver when it suddenly tipped over. She looked around saw the other enhanced soldiers also shut down. "Guys, it worked, the super soldiers have all gone to sleep."

Oliver heaved a sigh of relief. "Great work Mr. Terrific."

"It was a team effort," Curtis said before he sagged in his seat.

Oliver looked around at Kara, Dinah and Wally. "Let's go clean this mess up."

"Argus is en route to help arrest everyone," Felicity said. "Since they can legally arrest people."

"Copy that Overwatch," Oliver said. "We'll keep an eye on the Cadmus personal until they get here."

Inside the Cadmus command center Kara and Oliver found that Barry, Cisco and Curtis had already tied up the Cadmus personal and had them sitting on the floor. Oliver looked around the room and then at the three heroes. "Good work."

"It was all Flash's doing," Curtis said.

"I figured," Oliver replied.

"Where's Batgirl?" Kara asked.

"She took the leader of Cadmus off to question her in private," Cisco said.

Kara started to scan the compound with her x-ray vision when Barry put a hand on her shoulder. "She said she was doing it for your protection."

Kara shrugged out of Barry's grip. "I think I know what's best for my protection. She resumed her search, then flew out of the room."

Barry and Oliver shared a look. "Come on, we need to go after her," Barry said. Oliver nodded his head in agreement. "What could possibly have Batgirl spooked like that?" Barry asked as they walked through bunker after Kara.

"I have no idea, but from what I've seen of her she isn't the type to spook easily," Oliver replied.

They rounded a corner and found a smashed open door. "This must be the place," Barry said. They stepped inside and to their amazement and horror they saw Kara holding a woman up by her throat. Kara's eyes blazed with energy. Barbara clung to Kara's arm trying to hold her back.

"I should kill you," Kara said to the woman.

"Whoa, wait Supergirl, hold up," Barry said as he stepped in front of Kara with his hands raised up.

"Back off Flash," Kara said.

"Supergirl, whoever you think that is, it isn't," Oliver said. "So why don't you put her down and we can talk this over." His hand crept up towards a special arrow in his quiver as he waited for Kara's reply.

"You don't understand, I know this person. On my Earth her name is Lillian Luthor, she's the head of Cadmus and the source of everything wrong in my life."

"My name is not Luthor, it's Lowe," Lillian said. "And I have no idea what you are talking about." She clawed at Kara's iron grip.

"The name might be different, but who you are isn't. You're the same person who would try to genocide whole species because you're afraid of anyone even remotely different from you." She tightened her grip and Lillian start started to gasp for breath.

"Supergirl!" Barbara shouted. "Mon-El wouldn't want you to do this!"

"But she's..." Kara started to say.

"No she is not," Barbara replied. "And I would tell you the same thing even if it was Lillian Luthor."

Kara released Lillian who fell to the ground and massaged her throat as she caught her breath. Oliver eased his hand away from his quiver as he sensed the danger was over. "You're lucky Batgirl was here," Kara told Lillian before she flew out of the room. Barbara looked over at Barry who nodded his understanding. He grabbed Barbara and then ran out of the room after Kara, leaving Oliver behind to deal with Lillian.

Kara came to a stop on a lightly forested hill that overlooked National City. She screamed then punched a tree with exploded in a shower of splinters.

"Just don't use your heat vision, they've already got more wild fires than they can deal with," Barry said as he and Barbara came to a stop next to her.

"That was a low blow back there Babs and you know it," Kara said as she advanced on Barbara and Barry.

"Low blow, what do you mean low blow, what does she mean by low blow?" Barry asked Barbara as he ducked behind her.

Barbara kept her eyes on locked on Kara's. "Mentioning Mon-El."

"What does Mon-El have to do with this?"

"The device used to drive away the Daxamites, and in the process Mon-El, was originally invented by Lillian Luthor's son, my cousin's nemesis, as a weapon to use against Kryptonians. She modified it to work on the Daxamites, and Mon-El is a Daxamite."

"But she isn't the person responsible for Mon-El having to leave Earth. She didn't push the button," Barbara said.

Kara heaved a deep sigh. "No that was me, and we couldn't have beaten the Daxamites, at least not without many more people dying, without it." Kara pointed a finger at Barbara. "But she did make the weapon, and she tried to kill every alien in National City."

"But that was Lillian Luthor, not Lillian Lowe," Barry said.

"I know that Barry!" She sighed, then massaged her temples.

"But it didn't make a difference when you saw her, is that it?"

Kara let her arms fall to her side. "Yes okay, I saw her and I just snapped, which I never do."

"To be fair this version of her is every bit the heinous bitch you know from our Earth," Barbara said.

Barry glared at Barbara. "Not helping."

Barbara brushed past Barry and hugged Kara. "You went a little overboard, but it's not like you beat up an innocent person. Just think of that meta human she experimented on then sent out to die and take out as many people as possible with him. You did good today Kara." She patted the Kryptonian on the back. "Just maybe tone it down a little when you're apprehending someone."

"Or maybe a lot," Barry said.

"Plus, in all the confusion of the Daxamite Invasion didn't our Lillian Luthor escape?"

Kara kicked at a rock embedded in the ground. "Unfortunately yes."

Barbara held out her arms. "There you go, you caught Lillian Luthor."

"That's, uh, not her name," Barry said.

"Shut up Barry, we're having a moment," Barbara said.

"Okay, okay, excuse me for trying to bring a little accuracy to the conversation."

"It's not the same thing as arresting the real Lillian Luthor," Kara said. "Our Lillian, our Earth's Lillian."

"But it still felt good right?"

Kara smirked. "It did, not the threatening to kill her part, that was very bad and I'm mad at myself about that."

"It's okay Kara, we forgive you, though I doubt Lillian Lowe will anytime soon," Barry said.

"Too bad, I don't care what a mad scientist thinks about me," Barbara replied. "And neither should you Kara."

"I don't, I mean I'm not insensitive to other people's opinions, but as far as people whose opinion of me I care about, she's low on the list."

"I just think it's weird her name is Lillian Luthor on your Earth, and Lillian Lowe on mine," Barry said.

"Lowe is probably her maiden name," Kara said. "On our Earth she married Lionel Luthor."

"Who's that?" Barry asked.

"You don't know, but that would mean, oh Kal would be so happy to visit this Earth," Kara said.

"That also means you buddy Lena doesn't exist either," Barbara said.

Kara frowned. "Then it's a good thing I don't live on this Earth."

"I've officially lost the thread of this conversation. Can we go back and see how everyone else is doing?" Barry asked.

"I can see them from here and they're fine," Kara said as she looked off in the direction of the Cadmus compound. "Oh wait…no never mind, I was right the first time, they're fine, nothing to worry about."

"Even so, I think I'll head back as see what I can do to help with the clean up. You two are more than welcome to stay here and relax, you've certainly earned it." Barry waved then ran off.

Kara sucked in a deep breath. "What do you say Babs, ready to get back to it?"

"The better question is are you?" Barbara replied.

Kara squared her shoulders. "Yes, there's no sense in standing around here moping."

Barbara looked around the small wooded clearing. "We probably can't get an Uber out here can we? Not that my phone even works in this dimension."

"We could always call Barry back to give you a lift," Kara said.

"No, no, honestly that was even worse than being flown around by you."

Kara crossed her arms in front of her. "I still can't believe you hate flying with me."

"It is legitimately terrifying, and I do not say that lightly."

"It's either I fly you, Barry carries you, or you walk, and it's a long walk," Kara said.

Barbara sighed. "Let's get this over with." Her shoulders sagged as she held out her arms to Kara to carry her back to Cadmus headquarters.

* * *

Back at STAR Labs everyone had gathered to toast their success. "I just finished talking to Lyla," Diggle said. "All of the Cadmus personal are in Argus custody."

"What about the cyborgs?" Caitlin asked.

"Argus scientists are working on removing their implants and filtering the Mirakuru out of their bloodstream," Diggle said. "We don't know how much of a recovery they'll make, but they are no longer a threat."

"Welp, alls well that ends well," Felicity said. "Cadmus is destroyed, none of us died, go team."

Oliver stepped into the middle of the room. "Everyone, that was good work by all of you, but I wanted to give special thanks to Barbara and Kara. They didn't have to come help us, but they did." He raised his champaign flute towards Barbara and Kara. "So thank-you for all your help." Everyone else in the room followed Oliver's lead and raised their glasses in the direction of the pair from Earth-38.

Kara fought back a blush. "Guys there's really no need to make a big deal. You needed our help, of course we'd come."

"Regardless, we're glad you did," Barry said.

"Damn straight," Cisco said. "Barbara it was an honor to fight crazy rogue government agents with you."

"And hack some crazy systems," Curtis said. "Seriously, the past few days have been nuts, even by our standards."

"Like I keep saying, I'm just happy to have been able to help," Barbara said.

"And so modest too, honestly if I wasn't gay and you didn't live in another dimension, you'd be like my perfect woman," Curtis said.

"But I thought I was your perfect woman," Felicity said.

"Sorry Felicity, but Barbara's you, only she can also fight."

"Ouch Curtis, there's no need to be so savage about it," Rene said.

"Don't worry Felicity, I've spent my share of time as the person behind the computer, I know how much skill that takes and you're as good as anyone I've ever met at it," Barbara said.

"And believe me Felicity, that is high praise coming from her," Kara said. "Babs works with the best back home."

"Speaking of which we should be getting back there," Barbara said. "National City won't protect itself, and I have a paper due tomorrow." She pushed herself off of the table she'd been sitting on. "That is if Cisco isn't too drunk to be able to open a portal to home."

Cisco set down his champagne flute. "Oh I can open a portal, don't you worry about that."

"That sounds like our cue," Kara said. She made her goodbyes to Team Flash while Barbara did the same with Team Arrow. Then they headed to the Breach Room with Cisco, Barry and Oliver.

"Once again Kara, you helped us save the day," Oliver said.

Kara shrugged her shoulders. "It's what I do."

"Are you going to be okay?" Oliver asked.

"Are you kidding? I'm fine." She paused. "I will be fine."

"That's good to hear, and you make sure that she does," Oliver pointed at Barbara.

"I make no promises, but I'll do my best," Barbara replied.

"I'm sure you will," Oliver said. "She could teach me a thing or two about crimefighting," he told Barry.

"I had a good teacher," Barbara said.

"Oh my god Babs, could you imagine if Ollie ever met…" Kara's voice tailed off as she mimed a pair of pointy ears on the top of her head.

"I don't think the Multiverse could handle that much glowering," Barbara said.

Kara snorted. "We need to make that happen. Oliver, you have to come and visit our Earth sometime."

Oliver chuckled. "I'll see if I can fit it into my schedule, but between being the mayor and the Green Arrow I don't have much free time."

"Come on Oliver, don't be a curmudgeon," Kara said. "I've been to this Earth twice now. It's only fair if you return the favor at least once."

"We'll see, maybe," Oliver said.

Kara clasped her hands together. "I'll hold you to that." Kara turned her attention to Barry. "Looks like it's that time again super friend."

Barry pulled Kara in for a hug. "We really need to do this when the world isn't ending."

Kara returned Barry's hug. "But that would be us now wouldn't it. Good luck with your wedding plans, and expect an invitation to Alex and Maggie's wedding."

"That sounds like fun," Barry said. "And Kara, look after yourself okay?"

"Of course, I always do, as the job allows."

Barry looked between Barbara and Oliver. "Right, of course, it's just." He shook his head. "Never mind, just remember…" he paused.

"Remember what Barry?" Kara tilted her head.

"You know what, forget I said anything. Have a safe trip back and say hi to the gang at the DEO for me."

"I'll do that," Kara said. She and Barry shared another hug, then she hugged Cisco before walking over to where the portal to Earth-38 was going to appear.

Barbara then walked up to Barry to say her goodbyes. "I can safely say the past few days have been unlike anything I've ever seen."

Barry laughed. "It was good meet you too Barbara, and you have an invitation to the wedding if you want one."

Barbara nodded her head. "I just think I might."

Barry pulled Barbara in for a hug. "She's not right, make sure she gets help for Mon-El," he whispered into her ear. Barry pulled away from Barbara who simply nodded her understanding.

After she shared one last fist bump with Cisco Barbara joined Kara. "So Babs what did Barry say to you?"

"That's, it was between me and Barry," Barbara said.

Kara opened her mouth to protest, but before she could say anything Cisco opened the portal to Earth-38. "Here you go, one portal back to your Gotham," Cisco said.

"Thanks for coming with me Babs," Kara said. She gave Barbara's hand a squeeze.

"Thanks for inviting me, this was quite the adventure."

"Hold on tight." Kara tightened her grip on Barbara's hand, then flew them through the portal and back to their Earth.

* * *

 _Author's Notes:_ And this is why I should only publish after I've completely finished a work. Sorry gang, I've had this thing sitting on my desk mostly done for a while now, but it's more interesting to work on new stuff, not edit old stuff. Ah well. There's a brief epilogue that go up tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

-sam, 03/26/2018


	5. Epilogue

So We Can Stay Alive

by: Sam Lincoln

Disclaimer: All the characters contained in this story are the proper of DC Comics, and Warner Brothers. No infringement is intended.

Summary: While Kara Danvers is in Gotham looking to distract herself from the aftermath of the Daxamite Invasion Barry Allen shows up with a problem that needs her help to solve. Punching bad guys is an acceptable way of dealing with grief, right?

Spoilers: This story takes place during the hiatus before the 2017-2018 seasons for all of the CW:DC shows, though the only finale that plays a role in the story is Supergirl's.

Epilogue

* * *

Barbara and Kara landed on the rooftop in Gotham they had left from. Barbara pulled off her helmet and surveyed the Gotham skyline. "Wait, it's still the same night we left."

"Yeah, time flows weird between our Earths. Don't worry about it. I should be getting back to National City, Alex gets nervous whenever I spend time outside this dimension."

"I can't imagine why," Barbara said. "Say Kara, have you ever looked yourself up on that Earth?"

"I figure if I don't look then Krypton in that dimension is still alive. The council listened to Uncle Jor-El and saved the planet. I'd be, gosh, older than my mother was when she sent me to Earth. I like to think that I married some nice Kryptonian boy, maybe followed my mother and went into the law. We would have kids, of course, and who knows, my daughter might even be my age, or close to it."

Kara looked up into the night's sky and sighed. "I suppose, when you get down to it, I haven't found out what happened to that Krypton because I want to believe that somewhere out there is a Kara Zor-El living the live I was supposed to lead. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade my families and friends on Earth for anything, but knowing that there might a version of me living that other life? That my home is still alive?" Kara nodded her head. "That hope is enough for me."

Barbara wrapped her arms around Kara. "Only you Kara Danvers can take a silly little question like 'who do you think you are in an alternate universe?' And turn it into something both heartbreaking and uplifting."

Kara took a step back from Barbara then raised her arms and let them fall to her sides. "That's the story of my life, heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time." She pushed herself off the ground and started to fly away.

"Hey Supergirl," Barbara said. "Remember if you ever want to talk to me about anything, anything at all, I'm just a phone call away."

"Don't worry about Supergirl Batgirl, she's fine," Kara said before shooting up into the stratosphere on her way back to National City.

Barbara buckled her helmet back on and pulled out her grapple gun. "It's not Supergirl I'm worried about," she said to herself before swinging off the roof.

* * *

Oliver adjusted his tie then sat down behind his desk in the Star City mayor's office. The side door opened and Thea stepped into the office holding a manilla folder. "Well well, look who decided to stop playing with deadly cyborgs and do his real job for a change." Thea folded her arms across her chest and smirked at her brother.

"I'm always here for the people of Star City Speedy."

Thea rolled her eyes. "Save it for the press. You're just in time by the way."

"For?"

"Do you even look at your calendar? Your meeting with the CEO of Argo Research about the brownfield redevelopment in the Glades."

Oliver sighed. "Right, right, this deal is crucial for the Glades."

"And you forgot about it."

"I have been a little preoccupied the past few days, but I'm here now so send him in."

Thea placed the folder on Oliver's desk. "You really did not do your homework on this one."

"What can I say Speedy, there were Mirakuru-enchanced super soldiers on the loose."

"Ah that old excuse," Thea said.

Oliver stood up and adjusted his cuff links. "We've already put this meeting off how many times?"

"This would be the third reschedule," Thea said.

"Then it wouldn't be fair of us to postpone again. Send her in."

Thea tapped on the desktop. "Okay, but remember, don't stare." She walked over to the door to the office antechamber and pulled it open. "The mayor will see you now. Karen Starr, maybe I introduce you to Mayor Oliver Queen."

Oliver stepped out from behind the desk to greet the CEO, but stopped when he caught sight of the impossibly beautiful woman dressed in an impeccably tailored, and very form fitting, business suit who walked into his office. The bemused look on Thea's face and her discrete cough broke Oliver out of his stupor. "I'm sorry this meeting has taken so long. I hope this is the start of a fruitful relationship between Star City and Argo Research Ms. Starr." He held out his hand.

The woman adjusted her glasses then tucked a loose strand of short blonde hair behind her ear before shaking Oliver's hand. "It's a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance Mayor Queen, and I have a feeling this partnership will benefit us both."

Oliver smiled. "I'm glad to hear that, why don't you take a seat and we can get started."

The End

* * *

 _Author's Notes:_ And with that it is over, hooray! This was originally supposed to be a much smaller story, but it kept on growing into what felt like a true three episode crossover event. Now, don't expect a follow-up to that final reveal (or should you?) I don't have any solid hooks for a story that build off of it (or do I?), and even if I did, I'm a little loathe to alter the landscape of the shows that much. My preference is to tell small stories that fit in the cracks of what the shows do, give or take a Batgirl. Lastly, a question for you fine folks, in the time it's taken to get So We Can Stay Alive published, I've gotten two other stories mostly done, so I offer the choice: _Atlantic City_ , or _The Late Kara Danvers_? Or I'll just do whatever. Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed reading this, I had fun writing it, until next time.

-sam, 2018-03-27


End file.
